Greatest Gift
by GraphXButterfly
Summary: A strange set of events leads to a discovery nobody was expecting… Can Kathryn and Chakotay's relationship survive the unwelcome surprise? And, how will the Captain and the crew deal with the discovery. YAY I have a title now!
1. Chapter 1

Untitled

Chapter One

Summary: A strange set of events leads to a discovery nobody was expecting… Can Kathryn and Chakotay's relationship survive the unwelcome surprise?

Authors Note: Okay I have no idea what to call this so far so well if you can think of a title I am OPEN for suggestions! Meanwhile please enjoy it so far, I know I have a ton of other stories that are in process but this idea just wouldn't leave me so I had to get up and write it.

-=/\=-

After pressing a few buttons on the con. Kathryn turned to Tom. "Alright I think I'm going to turn in for the night, I'll see you in about six hours." She told him as she stood.

Tom nodded, "alright Captain," he stated, he'd gotten up just about four hours before, the two of them had just left the Ranok home world. They were a strange bunch of aliens, and had insisted on Kathryn herself coming to negotiate for safe passage through their space. The only problem was their world was surrounded by a dense patch of asteroids that prevented Voyager from entering orbit. They had also wanted her to bring only one officer, so Tom due to the fancy flying that would be needed was the one to accompany her. "Sleep well" he stated as he turned to look at her. He smiled when she placed her hand on his shoulder then disappeared into the aft section of the Flyer.

Kathryn sighed as she made her way to the bed in the back of the flyer. She was exhausted and had been up for nearly twenty hours, she'd let Tom have the first bit of rest since they hadn't reached the edge of the Asteroid Belt. She was confident that he'd do fine without her once they'd reached it. She had also been in intense negations for the last four days. In the end all they wanted was some of Neelix's recipes. Of all the things the Voyager had to offer that was what they wanted, and it took them four days to decide. She took her jacket off and laid it next to the bed; she hopped up, grabbed a thermal blanket, and lay down. She closed her eyes and was soon fast asleep.

Tom smiled to himself, she'd asked for him to get her up in about six hours, but he had decided that if she didn't wake up on her own he'd let her sleep up to eight hours. He made himself busy by calculating the path he'd take through the asteroid belt.

-=/\=-

A blush light floated from around the outside of an asteroid. It drifted slowly towards the outer hull of the shuttle. Pausing briefly outside of the shuttle it acted as if it were debating on if it would proceed. It began moving again, easily penetrating the hull, it found itself floating just behind a strange corporeal being. It drifted back and forth for a moment as if studying the creature in front of it. It quickly moved when the strange creature turned its head.

Tom had an odd feeling that he was being watched and turned around to see if there was anything there. He shook his head and laughed at himself for thinking that someone else was in the room. Maybe he just wasn't used to being alone in a shuttle anymore. He turned back to plotting his course shaking off the strange feeling.

The blue light floated back towards the other side of the small vessel. It could since the presence of another creature. It moved over the female and hovered there for a moment. Then it slowly drifted down and in to her chest. And then a few moments later it emerged and quickly made its way back out into space.

Kathryn awoke with a start, she gasped and looked around, "Tom" she called out her voice in a slight panic.

Tom heard her calling from the aft section and quickly slowed and stopped the Flyer. He ran to the rear of the shuttle with his phaser out. He entered the room and saw her standing with her tricorder. "Captain?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think we're alone." She stated looking at him as she scanned the room. He put his phaser back into the holster of his uniform and pulled out his own tricorder. She spoke once more, "I awoke with a feeling that I wasn't alone, it felt almost as if someone or something was touching me." She stated trying to locate any abnormal readings.

Tom furrowed his brow, "I had a strange sensation too. I felt as if someone was watching me."

The two locked eyes, "that doesn't sound like a coincidence." She stated. "You said that it felt like something was watching you? I felt as if something was touching me. Yet, I'm not detecting anything out of the ordinary."

"If something was here it's not now," Tom stated then laughed, "Either that or we're both letting our imaginations go wild."

Kathryn smiled but she couldn't shake the feeling that there had been something there. "Maybe, I say let's get out of the asteroid belt and back to Voyager" she stated. She had goose bumps; "we'll have Tuvok due a full scan once we're back; just to make sure that there wasn't something here." She stated.

Tom nodded, and the two of them made their way back to the front of the Flyer, she paused only for a moment and shook off the feeling and refocused her mind, it wouldn't do either of them any good if she were distracted.

-=/\=-

Once they were back on Voyager a full extensive scan was made on the Delta Flyer, and nothing was found to be out of the ordinary. Both Kathryn and Tom chopped up the incident to perhaps being under so much stress negotiating with the Ranok. They'd had very little time to themselves and were constantly being overshadowed by Ranokian security. Maybe that feeling of being watched constantly stayed with both of them.

She made a quick note in her log and reported to sickbay for her post away mission exam, Tom had already had his, but Kathryn tended to try and avoid the exam, but the Doctor always seemed to find her. She didn't mention the incident to him and was thankful when he pronounced that she was physically fine and fit. This helped to ease her mind. After her exam she retired to her quarters to try and unwind, the events of the last week still weighing on her mind. A nice long hot bath and a book later she felt much more relaxed, tomorrow she'd meet up with Chakotay for another date, they hadn't really had a chance to see each other for more than business in just about a week and she looked forward to seeing him.

They'd been dating now for nearly a month, and had both agreed to take things slow. She was still unsure how the crew would respond to them as more then professional, so they were just enjoying dating for now and learning more about each other. The crew would learn of their relationship in due time, when they were both ready to make the transition to a public couple, but for now they would enjoy the time that that had with each other. This was a pleasant thought as she drifted into a restful night's sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

-=/\=-

Pinching the bridge of her nose Kathryn winced as she started getting yet another headache, it seemed that here lately it was her constant companion. She released the bridge of her nose and rubbed her eyes as she yawned. Coffee, she needed another cup of coffee. She stood and made her way to the replicator for the fourth time that day; she replicated yet another cup of coffee and made her way back to her desk.

She tried refocusing on the engineering report that she'd received earlier in the day. The words seemed to blur together. She set it down on her desk and stood to try to shake off the foggy feeling she had. She rotated her neck and rubbed it. This wasn't getting any work done. She stretched and decided that maybe it was time to go down to the mess hall, it was well after the time the rest of the alpha staff would have taken their lunch, and she had yet to eat anything. In fact aside from the coffee she hadn't had anything to eat yet that day.

She exited her ready room and crossed the bridge, "Commander, I'm going to go down to the mess for lunch, I should be back in about an hour. You have the bridge." She smiled as she made her way to the lift.

Chakotay nodded and smiled at her, at least she was going to go and get something to eat. "Aye Captain" he stated, taking a moment to admire her as she disappeared into the lift.

-=/\=-

The mess hall was fairly empty being that it was between shift lunches, there were a few crew members sitting on the couch but she pretty much had the room to herself, "ah Captain," Neelix stated as he saw her come into the room. "I'm sorry, but lunch is already over, though I do have a few things that I can whip up for you really fast."

Kathryn smiled and rested her elbows on the counter, "alright Mr. Neelix what do you have?" She looked over what he was preparing for dinner.

"Well let's see, I have some left over hair pasta, some Leola root stew, and Hinkel Berry salad." He smiled at her.

She thought on her choices for a moment, "how about the Hinkel Berry salad." She smiled; it was one of the things she actually did enjoy.

"Okay then, one Hinkel Berry salad coming right up" he disappeared into the back of the galley and came back with a nice bowl of salad for her. "I hope that you enjoy Captain."

She nodded, "thank you Mr. Neelix," she was about to turn when he stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder, "Oh and here you are captain," he stated handing her a steaming cup of coffee, she smiled and nodded then found herself a table that was overlooking the viewport.

-=/\=-

Chakotay was surprised to see her back in less than thirty minutes. She felt better then she had before she left, and decided that it would be a good idea to sit on the bridge for a little while. She'd found that she had been very hungry and ate faster then she usually did. She looked over at Chakotay when he spoke, "you're back early."

She blushed slightly, "Apparently I was hungrier then I realized, and I ate pretty fast." She spoke low so that their conversation couldn't be over heard.

"Really?" he asked raising his eyebrow, "you're not usually one to eat quickly, but I'm glad that you did get something to eat, I'd noticed that you skipped breakfast this morning."

"I was busy, there wasn't any time." She stated. She closed her eyes for a second; maybe, eating quickly wasn't the best idea.

Her reaction didn't go unnoticed by him, "are you alright?" he asked growing concerned at the fact she'd grown so quiet.

She took a deep breath and swallowed then smiled, "yeah, just I'm wondering if it was such a good idea to eat so fast, but I almost couldn't help it." She laughed slightly but it was beginning to be a show, the Hinkel Berries didn't seem like they were setting well.

He smiled, "so what'd you have?" he asked, "I had the stew, it was editable but that was about it," he laughed.

"I had the salad; you know me and Hinkel Berries." She grinned, they'd found the Hinkel Berries on a planet about nine weeks before, around a week after they'd finished their negotiations with the Ranokians, they'd named them after Crewman Hinkel who'd discovered them.

He laughed lightly; it seemed that most people on the ship loved them, except for him. They were all too sweet for his liking. "Yes, you can't seem to get enough of them."

She was going to say something more but paused; she took her right hand and placed it on her face she sighed, "I think maybe I ate too fast." She said as she swallowed again, and rotated her neck; she was starting to feel pretty awful, "I think I'm going to go to my ready room." She stood and felt a bit dizzy. Pulling herself together she spoke in a louder voice, "Commander you have the bridge," she then made a hasty retreat, leaving Chakotay looking after her concerned.

-=/\=-

In her ready room she leaned against the wall for a second to try and steady herself some more. After a few moments of deep purposeful breathing she made her way back to the replicator and ordered some water, she cautiously sipped from the glass and thankfully the cool liquid eased the fluttering in her stomach. She took a seat on her couch and put her feet up on the coffee table and after about twenty minutes she felt far better. She decided to try and get some more work done, and resumed her seat at her desk attempting to read the report she'd started earlier in the day.

-=/\=-

He gave her about an hour before he decided to check up on her, she hadn't looked well when she retried to her ready room. He pulled out a report that he had and stood and handed the bridge off to Tuvok and crossed it. He pressed the chime on her door and only had to wait a few moments.

-=/\=-

"Come in" she stated not looking up. She pressed a few buttons on the padd to double check something. "Hello Chakotay," she said still without looking.

"Am I that predictable?" he asked as he approached her desk. He placed the Padd down and waited for her to finish up what she was doing.

She finished her task and then looked up; she noted the padd and set the one she'd been working on down next to it. "Yes you are" she smiled, and crossed her hands under her chin. "And before you ask, I'm fine."

He looked her over and she was sitting very comfortably her eyes sparkling as she looked up at him. "You do know me well don't you," he took a seat across from her. "I was just concerned."

"I know" she smiled, "I think I should stick to how I normally eat." She laughed, "You want something?" she asked as she stood and walked towards the replicator.

"Tea" he said.

She nodded and ordered both of them some tea. She returned to sit across from him, "I suspect that there's a bit more to your visit then to check on me and give me this report," she inquired as she sat down and leaned back in her chair.

He smiled and nodded, "Neelix is hosting a party in tonight and I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me?" He flashed his dimples.

"I'd love too" she leaned forward.

"I was hoping you'd say that." He flirted back.

"Chakotay," she paused and looked at him her expression serious.

"Yes?" he wasn't sure if he liked her tone or not.

"I was wondering," her eyes drifted down to her hands that were clasped together loosely on her desk, "If we should let the crew know, about" She timidly looked up into his eyes, "about us." She finally finished.

He placed his hand on top of both of hers, "only if you're ready." He stated looking deeply into her eyes.

A shy smile formed on her lips, "I think I am." They'd been together for a little while now, and she was more than ready to start being able to show affection to him openly.

"If you are ready, then I am." He gave her hand a gentle squeeze reassuring her, he was letting her lead how fast their relationship progressed. He didn't want to push her at any point, afraid that she'd back away, it'd taken him nearly six years to break down her barriers and he didn't want to do _anything_ to jeopardize their new found relationship. She nodded and just stared at him for a few moments before they both decided that they should get back to work.

-=/\=-

It'd been a month since Neelix's party and their announcement that they were a couple. They'd entered the mess hall arm and arm and she leaned into him slightly. The response they got was a welcome one; everyone was overjoyed that they had decided that it was alright for them to become a couple. She couldn't have been happier with the response, most of her insecurities had been alleviated.

Today she was going on a double date with Tom and B'Elanna; it'd been Chakotay's idea. She'd liked it, being that she'd also decided that she was too far withdrawn from the crew and if they were going to be in the Delta Quadrant as long as they believed they'd still be there, she'd better create more of a social net work. She grabbed out one of her favorite dresses and put in on. She frowned as she realized that it was tighter then she remembered it being. Her brow was furrowed as she looked at herself sideways in the mirror. She removed it and tossed it back on the bed, perhaps she should start her exercise routine again, she'd gotten slack about it and apparently the effects were beginning to show.

By the third dress she'd had it, nothing seemed to fit right. Sighing she plopped down on the bed. She was getting another headache, "Okay Kathryn, you need to get it together, pretty soon you're going to need to replicate an entire new wardrobe if you don't watch it" she said to herself. The fact she was older was starting to wear on her, it seemed far harder to maintain her weight the in it had been in the past. She took a deep breath and pulled out a pair of slacks and a nice button up, it wasn't quite as sexy as she'd been hoping but at least it still fit well. She pulled her hair back into a simple half pony tail and curled a few tresses that she'd left out on either side. She smiled at herself and moved into her main living area to get her shoes, just in time for the chime to ring.

Chakotay stepped into the room upon being told he could enter. He grinned when he saw her, "you look beautiful" he said looking her over.

She blushed, "you're just saying that," she finished putting her shoes on and made her way to great him. He embraced her and placed a soft kiss on her lips. She sighed into his mouth as the kiss deepened. Once they broke apart she looked up into his eyes, "I think we'd better get going or we're going to be late." He moved away from her and held out his arm, she took it and the two of them made their way to meet up with Tom and B'Elanna on the holodeck.

-=/\=-

It wasn't very late and she was already exhausted. They'd been dancing but had only been doing so for three songs and she was ready for a break. When the song stopped she looked up at him, "I think I'm ready to sit down for a bit." She smiled, she felt bad for him because he obviously was having a marvelous time.

He nodded and guided her back to where they'd been sitting. "Are you alright?" he asked once they were seated.

She smiled, "yeah, I'm just tired; I think my age is catching up with me." She joked, it seemed like she was more and more willing to go to bed early then she used to be. She rotated her neck rubbing it subconsciously.

"Hey, I'm older." He stated back as he took a seat across from her.

"By a few months," she laughed back; her laugh was stopped when she yawned. He realized that she wasn't kidding about being tired.

He looked at her and smiled slightly, "perhaps we should call it a night?"

She looked into his eyes a slight sideways smile with furrowed brows, she reached her hand out and took his, "But, it's so early."

He reached out and placed his hand on her cheek, she leaned into it as he brushed her face with his thumb. "But you look exhausted, I'm sure they'd understand."

For some reason she felt the familiar feeling of tears building up behind her eyes. She swallowed fighting the feeling, she wasn't about to start crying, not over the fact that she was tired, but she did feel really bad that she was destroying his night. "Are you sure?" she asked trying to make it to where she didn't feel so bad.

He smiled at her, her demeanor broke his heart, "Kathryn, I'll be fine, you're exhausted and I sprang this on you last minute. I promise I won't be upset and I'm sure they will understand that you need rest. After all we've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off for the last three weeks."

She took a deep breath and nodded, "alright." She stood and wavered slightly, Chakotay placed his hand on her arm to steady her, "maybe I shouldn't have had any wine" she laughed.

He grinned, "Okay let's get you home." He to stood and offered his arm out to her. They stopped long enough to let Tom and B'Elanna know that they were retiring for the evening.

The younger couple looked after them, Tom with a goofy grin on his face. B'Elanna looked at him sideways, "Come on Tom, I doubt that's why they're going early, so you can wipe that grin off your face."

"How do you know that that's _not_ why they left early?" he challenged as the next song started.

She took his lead, "because, she's still not ready for that step, I'm sure of it, I mean they've only been public for a short period of time, and from what Chakotay said they'd been going out for a while before they decided to make it public. They're taking things slow."

"You sure know an awful lot." He spun her around.

"Hey I'm both of their friends" she laughed as she turned back to face him, she leaned into him stopping their movement. She grinned as she claimed his mouth, "though, I wouldn't mind turning in for the evening." She said into his mouth after she broke the kiss.

Tom grinned broadly, "Hum," he said, "I think that might be a good way to end the evening." He turned and took her arm, "computer end program"

-=/\=-

Chakotay accompanied her back to her quarters; they stopped in front of her doors. "I did have a wonderful time tonight." She grinned as she leaned on him.

"I did too" he took her into a hug and breathed in the scent of her hair.

She closed her eyes enjoying the feeling of his arms around her. She briefly thought about inviting him in for the evening, but she still wasn't quite ready for that step in their relationship, not quite yet. She looked up and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck she pulled him into a soft tender kiss. They broke apart she traced his tattoo, "Good night, I love you."

He was slightly disappointed that he wasn't invited in, but he'd told himself long ago, he wouldn't push. He just smiled at her and simply said, "I love you too, sleep well." He gave her one last long lingering kiss before he allowed her to make her way into her quarters. She paused and looked back to him with one last debate, but only nodded and moved far enough into the room for the door to close. She was really tired.

She made her way into her sleeping area she shed her clothing and pulled her nightgown over her body only after removing her bra. She lay down and was asleep in mere moments after her head hit the pillow.

-=/\=-

It was still very early in the morning, and she was up, she'd only slept for a few hours, and had spent the last three in the bathroom. She hadn't thought she'd drank that much the night before, she normally could handle a couple glasses of wine no problem, she was exhausted and could hardly move, every bit of energy she'd had was quickly expelled along with the contents of her stomach.

She lay on the floor with her head back against the wall she was taking deep breaths. After a few more moments she decided to attempt to make her way back to bed. She reached up and grabbed a hold of the counter and managed to fight her way into a standing position. She looked up into the mirror, she looked awful, her face was pale her hair messed. She felt dizzy and was unsure if she could walk without falling.

The rational part of her brain finally kicked in, she used the wall to make her way back into the bedroom, and grabbed a simple outfit from her dresser. She'd decided that it might be a good idea to go and see the Doctor, perhaps it was nothing, but she just hadn't been feeling right for a while now. Most days it was just a slightly unsettled stomach and headache but this was by far the worst episode she'd had.

After she dressed she'd found that she had a least a bit more energy, even though she was still shaky. She decided to forgo transport and started her way to sickbay on foot.

-=/\=-

By the time she'd made it to sickbay there wasn't much left of the energy she'd found. She leaned onto the first biobed she came across. Her eyes were closed tightly as she took deep breaths. After a few moments she called out, "computer, activate EMH" her voice was very shaky and weak.

"Please state the…" he stopped mid sentence when he caught sight of her leaning precariously on the bed. "Captain?" he asked grabbing a tricorder. He took her by the shoulders, and helped to guide her into a sitting position on the biobed. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked starting to scan her from top to bottom.

"I'm not" she paused, "sure" she took a deep breath, "I just don't feel right and I spent the last three hours over my." She stopped the thought of what she'd been doing making her feel like doing it again, "toilet." She managed to finally say. She shivered slightly, "I haven't been feeling right for a while." Her hands were gripping the side of the biobed so tightly that her knuckles were white.

"I see" he stated moving the tricorder to where the source of her complaint was. He raised his eyebrow and as he scanned. He grabbed a hypo spray and pressed it into her neck. He watched her visibly relax as it took effect. "Have you been having any other symptoms, such as exhaustion and headaches? He also took note of the fact that she'd had some alcohol."

She looked at him and narrowed her eyes, "actually yes." She stated, she thankfully was beginning to feel a bit better though she was still really tired.

"Captain, when was your last cycle?" he asked.

"I had one about two weeks ago, why?" she asked looking at him confused as to why he was asking her about that.

"Was it normal?" he inquired.

She looked at him sideways she wasn't sure if she liked where this conversation was heading. "It was light; in fact my last few have been very light." Her eyes grew wide, "I'm not going through early menopause am I?"

The Doctor couldn't help but laugh, "um no captain, I was asking because you're pregnant." He wasn't quite expecting the reaction that he got form her.

She jumped off the bed and backed away her eyes wide, "that can't be Doctor." She looked almost panicked, "you're wrong."

He looked at her, "I assure you I'm able to read a tricorder."

She was back against the wall, "Doctor how could I have gotten pregnant." Her heart was racing and she started to feel really woozy from standing so quickly.

"I'm sure I don't have to explain how a woman becomes pregnant." He stated moving a bit closer to her. He was confused.

She was shaking her head, "it has to be wrong; I haven't done anything that could get me pregnant." The color had started to leave her face, which made the Doctor very concerned.

He was standing just in front of her, "you had to have done something. You are pregnant, fourteen weeks." He stated he turned the tricorder around to show her the scan. Her breathing was erratic and the room started to spin as she looked at the device he held out for her to see.

She began to waver and he put his hands out just in time to catch her. He quickly lifted her up onto the biobed. He was very confused by her reaction. She wasn't unconscious for very long. Her eyes slowly revealed themselves. She shook off the dizzy feeling and locked eyes with the Doctor who was scanning her, "what happened?" she asked rubbing her eyes with her left hand.

"You went into shock and fainted on me." He stated. He held his hand out for her to take. She sat up and looked at him. He waited a moment before he spoke, "what do you mean you haven't done anything?" he asked.

"Exactly that Doctor, I haven't had sex since Mark." She looked very frightened.

The Doctor bit his lip, "if that's true then…"

Her eyes were very wide as she nodded, "I wasn't a willing participate." She could feel the sting behind her eyes and the tightening of her throat. She was biting down hard trying not to cry, the implication that someone had taken advantage of her without her knowledge was not a feeling anyone handled well.

The Doctor was very disturbed by this information. He was deep in thought and at first didn't notice that she was trying to get his attention. He looked at her after she placed her hand on his arm. "Are you absolutely sure, that I'm pregnant." She needed to know.

He nodded, and pressed a button on the monitor, sure enough the image of a second heartbeat appeared. Her hands came to her mouth. And, she closed her eyes, "Oh God," she stated the tears she'd been fighting finally releasing.

The Doctor did the only thing he could think of at the moment, he sat down on the edge of the biobed and pulled her into his arms. "I'll take some deep level scans and analyze the DNA, if you can, I need to know everything that you can remember between fourteen to fifteen weeks go."

She wrapped her arms around him, and nodded burying her face in his shoulder. She tried to figure out how it could have happened, and without her having any knowledge, that someone had violated her body.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

-=/\=-

It was finally time for her to get up, but she'd been awake for hours. After her visit to see the Doctor she'd found that sleep was impossible. She was exhausted, and extremely upset still. She had to see the Doctor again but he'd decided that it would be best for her to return to her quarters and try to sleep. He needed to get the equipment ready for the analysis he had to perform.

She pulled herself up off her couch; she'd been starring out at the stars. It was pointless to try to formulate an investigation until they knew where to start. It wasn't any use searching for what had happened until after they'd figured out who or what the father was. After all if they started searching though all the men on the ship, and it turned out that it didn't belong to any of them her personal life would be all across the ship in a matter of a few hours and she wasn't sure if she could handle that just yet.

She had had a long conversation once she'd calm down from crying, he'd told her that it wasn't quite too late to terminate the pregnancy being that it was so obviously unwanted, but she wasn't sure if she could make that decision, at least not by herself. She knew that she had to talk to Chakotay, but how do you tell the person you love, and have been dating that you're pregnant, when you haven't even crossed that line with them yet. This was not going to be an easy conversation.

She absent mindedly pulled on her uniform, she'd already taken a bath hoping that it would have helped her to go back to sleep, but it didn't there was way too much on her mind. She wasn't hungry so she just ordered a cup of coffee from the replicator and left for the bridge early. She was only moderately aware of her surroundings as she made her way to her ready room. She was thankful that the crew on the bridge only acknowledged her and didn't require much more than a nod and an "as you were" before she was in the safety of her ready room.

Numb didn't begin to explain how she was feeling. She'd had the intention to try and burry herself in work, but that quickly left, she found that instead she only sat on the couch starring out into the vastness of space.

-=/\=-

It wasn't long after the Alpha shift started that the absence of the Captain was noted. She hadn't arrived on the bridge and no one had seen her in the mess hall. Tom and Harry passed each other a look, it wasn't like her not to come to the bridge, sure she sometimes did her rounds but she usually reported to the bridge then went about her tour of the ship. Tuvok was curious but understood that humans sometimes did different things, and could be highly unpredictable.

Chakotay discreetly checked her whereabouts on the center consol. He wasn't as worried when he found that she was in her ready room, but it was still abnormal for her not to at least come out at the start of the shift. He decided to let her have a bit of time before he went to check in on her.

-=/\=-

Her mind was wondering trying to think of anything that could help her figure out how she'd found herself in the position that she was now in. She sighed and looked away from the viewport. She checked the chronometer, the day had officially started. She wiped the tears out of her eyes, she'd found herself crying again. She hadn't cried like this in ages. Her lungs filled completely as she took in a deep breath, now was as good of time as any to drop this bombshell on him, the question was how she was going to tell him. "Janeway to Chakotay" she stated as she pressed her combadge. She noted that she still sounded weak.

"Chakotay here" he said, he'd noticed.

"Could you please come to my ready room?" She shifted on the couch to where her feet were sitting on the floor.

"On my way" he closed the link and within mere moments her chime rang.

"Come in" she stated and looked up when he entered.

His brow furrowed at the site of her, she was pale, and looked like she hadn't slept at all despite the fact he'd dropped her off very early. "You wanted to see me?" he asked walking over to her. This was obviously not a business call; he knew this because she hadn't stood. He cautiously took a seat next to her.

She turned to look at him, her eyes danced from side to side, she looked extremely nervous and he could see that she'd been crying. He wanted to draw her into his arms and figure out what was bothering her, but her posture told him that perhaps he should refrain. "Chakotay" she started, the sound of her voice made his heart start racing; it was a tone she used when she knew she needed to tell him something he wasn't ready to hear.

The wheels in his head started to turn, she'd told him that she loved him, did she finally decided that they weren't going to be together, had she gotten freaked out? "What is it?" he asked. He did reach out and take her hands into his.

Her mouth opened then closed. Her eyes followed what her mouth did for a moment and she inhaled deeply then swallowed. She opened her eyes and asked, "Can you promise me, that you will hear me out completely." He could feel her shaking, "Before you say anything or do anything please?" her eyes were pleading with him. He nodded, now he knew that she had something to tell him that he wasn't going to like. He didn't say anything so she squeezed his hand tighter, "promise me" she stated again she wanted, no needed him to verbally say that he did.

"Alright Kathryn, I promise." He looked into her eyes, there was something very wrong.

She took a deep breath, fighting the tears that were trying to come back to the surface. Now she was terrified, how was she going to tell him? He saw her fighting and placed his hand on the side of her face. She leaned into the warmth and nearly lost her battle with her emotions. She took a deep breath and decided she wasn't going to be able to tell him with him holding on to her. She stood quickly and backed away and started to pace.

He looked at her a bit shocked that she'd pulled away so quickly. "Kathryn whatever it is, I" he stopped when she turned back and looked him straight in the eyes.

She decided the best way to tell him was too straight out and tell him. She took one last deep breath and said it. "I'm pregnant." She was holding her breath staring him straight in the eyes terrified to move.

His eyes grew really wide, that was certainly not what he'd been expecting to hear at all. His initial reaction was shock, but as quickly as it'd come it was replaced by anger, he stood and walked away from her slightly his back turned to her, his hand was in his hair he wasn't sure how to respond. He decided that perhaps he needed a bit more information. Trying to keep the building anger at bay, he turned to her. She was still standing in the same position frozen. He looked her over, "how far?" he asked, hoping that she was further then she appeared to be, perhaps it'd been from a relationship she'd had before they were together, but what relationship.

Her words were choked up in her throat she took a couple of quick breaths; she opened her moth then closed it again. She watched as he took a single step towards here and asked again, "Kathryn, how far?" He was angry she could tell, but she was frozen with fear not sure how to proceed with telling him.

She was shaking some, "I'm" she paused finally looking away, "I'm fourteen weeks" she stated. She looked back up to see him clinch together his fists. "Chakotay it's not what." She stepped towards him trying to explain but he didn't give her a chance.

"It's not what" he said in a raised voice, "Kathryn," He stopped she opened her mouth to say something again but he stopped her by raising his hand, "I have to get out of here." He simply said and turned heal and walked towards the door.

She tried to catch up to him "Chakotay wait, you don't…" but it was too late the doors opened and closed leaving her to stare at them. The tears finally spilled over, partly by the fact she was upset but also at the fact that he'd broken his promise. She was now very angry, she picked up the first thing she saw, her empty metal coffee cup and tossed it at the wall. It impacted just on the side of the door with a loud thunk.

-=/\=-

The tension Chakotay brought out with him onto the bridge was not unnoticed, and neither was the sound of something hitting the wall on the other side of the door. Though Chakotay had tried to look as if everything was alright the tightness in his jaw and hands gave him away. He simply continued to cross the bridge, he didn't want to stay on there and be the center of attention so he retreated to his office. He was angry at her, how could she have done that to him.

She wasn't letting him get that close to her, yet she'd allowed someone else too. Why was she playing with him the way she was, wasn't it obvious how much he loved her, how could she toy with his emotions the way she had.

Harry and Tom sent each other a look then looked towards the ready room; something had gone on in there. Harry looked to his left and noted the Padd that he was to turn into her that morning; he decided that under the circumstances perhaps he would take a reprimand for being late with it then to venture into the lioness' den.

Tom raised his eye brow as he turned back to his consol. They'd been in a very good mood the night before; he wondered what exactly could have caused it to turn so quickly. He decided that on his break he would go and talk to B'Elanna, perhaps they both might be able to figure out what had happened between the couple that had appeared to be completely and totally head over heels with each other.

-=/\=-

"Hey, I think we need to talk." Tom stated as he made his way into engineering.

B'Elanna looked up from her consol when he'd entered the room, "talk about what?" she asked. There was something in his tone that told her she should be concerned.

"Can we go into your office?" he asked, noticing that there were several people looking at them.

She nodded, now she knew that there was something more. She led him into her office and shut the door. "What is it Tom? You sound worried." She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I am worried," he took the seat that was on the front side of her desk. He waited for her to take hers.

"What are you worried about?" she asked confused.

"The Captain and Chakotay," He simply stated.

She looked at him wondering why in the Delta Quadrant he'd be worried about them. "Alright?" she said her tone was the one she reserved for when she was only half following the conversation. "Why are you worried about them?"

"They had a fight, and I don't think it was about ships business either, and I think it was a bad one." He leaned forward.

"okay why do you think they did?" she asked, she was curious now, though yes Tom tended to butt in where he didn't need to, it wasn't like him to come out and say something like this, usually it was about other things such as if they'd been dating, or had gotten it on or something.

"Well earlier she called him to the ready room, they were in there about a half hour or so, and then he came out and he was obviously fuming, something was defiantly under his skin. And not very long after he exited I heard a very loud impact, it sounded as if she'd thrown something at the door behind him." He looked down then back up, "I know they've had arguments before you can usually tell, but she has never thrown something after him, and usually he just comes out and sits down on the bridge he'll look angry but other than that he'll stay there, today he went straight to his office. Neither one of them has left their offices since."

B'Elanna looked down and thought on this, "You're right it's not like Chakotay to retreat when he's upset." Tom was convincing it did sound like they'd had a quarrel of some kind. "So why are you telling me?" she asked, she figured that he may have a plan or something.

"Well, I thought that if they had been in a fight, it may be a good idea for perhaps another woman to go and talk to her, I could talk with him, maybe we could find out what was wrong and help them out. I mean." He lost his train of thought.

Her lower lip was in her mouth as she thought on what he'd said, she was really one of the only woman that she might talk too, but she wasn't too sure with the fact that she was also Chakotay's really good friend that she'd be willing to share and confide in her, and she wasn't too sure Chakotay would be willing to confide in Tom, then again they'd both had their fair share of arguments. She leaned in towards him, "alright, I'll go to see about talking with her, and you can see about talking to him, but, if they don't want to talk about it, don't push them. If you do you could make things far worse."

He nodded, his break was going to be over soon, and he knew that he'd have to get back to the bridge. He at least had a data padd that he needed to turn into Chakotay so that was his perfect way into talk with him.

B'Elanna followed Tom up to the bridge, she would figure out something to tell the captain as to why she'd ventured her way up there. She grabbed a data padd and punched down a few things about her latest diagnostic. At least she'd have something to give to her.

-=/\=-

She whipped her eyes; she had to pull herself together. Things had gone badly very badly, he'd told her he'd hear her completely out but then didn't. She had no idea how she was going to face him now. He thought that she'd cheated on him, which wasn't the case.

Really, there wasn't much she could do to blame him, he was angry; he had every right to be. If she were in his shoes she may have just darn well reacted the same way. He had no idea that she hadn't been unfaithful. Well he hadn't given her a chance to tell him that she hadn't been. She took a deep breath and stood. She started to pace, she'd just gotten so angry with him for not listening, and now she was sure that he wouldn't listen to her. The decision about what to do about the life inside her was left completely up to her. Could she kill it, after all it was an innocent life; it had no idea that it wasn't conceived out of love. At the same time, how was she going to care for her ship and crew with a child?

The chime rang startling her, she didn't want to talk to anyone, see anyone, what if it was him; could she face him yet, after he'd reacted? It rang again and she ignored it. That wasn't going to solve the issue she knew darn well that if it was him he'd just walk right in. She finally just called out "come in" when it rang for the third time. The irritation in her voice was not hidden.

B'Elanna walked across the threshold as soon as the doors closed she looked up. She looked awful, her eyes were blood shot, her hair was in a slight state of disarray, and she was pale. "Captain," the shock in her voice wasn't hidden very well. "I um, I have the results of the diagnostic on the EPS relays." She stated, she wasn't sure what happened but obviously something had. She'd reached her hand out to give her the padd, but Kathryn didn't move towards it, she only looked down.

"Thank you just put it on my desk." She said as she looked out towards the viewport.

Tom had been right, there was something going on, it was not like her not to at least take the padd from her. She set the report down and turned back in her direction, she took a couple of steps and softened her voice, "Captain," she started cautiously, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine" she said but her voice betrayed her. B'Elanna could see her lift the back of her hand to her eye, she couldn't see her face but it was obvious that she was trying to keep from breaking down.

B'Elanna took another step, she placed her hand on the divider between the upper and lower deck; she decided that it might be a good idea to risk insubordination. "With all due respect Captain, I don't believe you."

Kathryn tensed up when she heard the words come out of her mouth. She swallowed hard. Then turned, her jaw set, "I beg your pardon?" she locked eyes with the half Klingon, it was obvious she was very angry.

"I said, I don't think you're fine, something is obviously bothering you." She lowered her hand and stepped up onto the upper level where Kathryn was standing.

She was in shock, it wasn't like B'Elanna to act in such a manner, sure she'd contradict her once in a while, but she generally went about it in a different way. "Lt. I said I was fine." Her voice hardened at the sudden opposition. "Now if you would excuse me, I have work I need to do." She retreated to her desk, and sat down, using it as a personal shield. She looked up when B'Elanna didn't move, "Lt. you're dismissed."

Instead of leaving and doing the exact opposite of what she'd told Tom to do, she walked right down and placed her hands onto her desk. Kathryn's eyes grew wide, "Captain," she fixed her with a look, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up in the brig for this but, I think you need to talk to someone, and there aren't a whole lot of people on this ship to talk to. You two had a fight didn't you?"

Her face dropped shock crossing it, "who told you that," she said, she was starting to be less up set and more pissed than anything else now.

"Honestly, though please don't get mad at him, he only had the best of intentions, it was Tom, he came down to me concerned. He said that Chakotay left here really angry and." She stopped and looked behind her; the coffee cup that'd been tossed at the door was still lying on the ground next to it, "You through something at the wall."

Kathryn's jaw was set, "get out" she hissed.

B'Elanna sighed heavily, and turned to leave, "alright I guess I'll just have to ask Chakotay what happened…" she was almost to the door.

Kathryn looked at her leaving, and her words cut deep, what would she think if she heard what Chakotay thought first. "B'Elanna, wait." She said. She knew that there was a significant chance that he would talk to her, like Tuvok was to herself, B'Elanna was Chakotay's closest friend, they told each other just about everything.

She turned to face her; she was looking down very uncharacteristic of her. "Yes?" she asked.

Kathryn came around to the side of her desk and sat down; she still hadn't looked back up to B'Elanna. "Well we didn't exactly have a fight, but, I had to tell him something that was really upsetting."

"What was it?" she asked, walking a bit closer to her.

She took another deep breath. "Well, you see, after our little get together last night, I became ill, I went to see the Doctor and I was given some news that, I wasn't expecting."

"News?" she was becoming worried, what kind of news would set Chakotay off so badly.

Her eyes came up off the ground to look into B'Elanna's. She breathed deeply trying to get the courage to tell her what she'd told him earlier. B'Elanna had kind of been right, there really wasn't anyone for her to talk too, out here there was just the senior staff, no girl friends, best friends, the only best friends she had was either extremely angry with her at the moment or lacked any amount of emotion. "B'Elanna, I'm pregnant."

The half Klingon's mouth hit the floor. "Wow, I didn't realize, that you were that serious, this upset him?" she looked at her, "is there something wrong with the baby?" she was in disbelief about what she'd just been told.

Once again she dropped eye contact, "as far as I know there's nothing wrong with the baby, and, we're not that serious, we haven't' done anything, yet."

And, for the second time B'Elanna was shocked. She turned around unable to look at her, "So, it's not his." She stated, in a very cool low tone, Kathryn could tell that she was very upset. She didn't give her a chance to say anything else before she asked another question. "So, if it's not Chakotay's child, who's is it." The sound of her voice was almost mincing, but at least she was giving her a bit more chance to explain herself then Chakotay had.

"I," she was once again fighting back tears, "I don't know."

B'Elanna was about to yell and ask how many lovers had she had not to know who the father was, but something in her voice told her not too. She turned around and what she saw broke her heart. Kathryn sat on her desk, her feet up on the chair that sat in front of it, her knees were tucked close to her chest, and her arms were around them. She was trembling slightly. The younger woman's hand came up to her mouth and she moved closer and knelt down in front of her Captain, she had never seen her look so vulnerable.

Kathryn felt B'Elanna touch her knee and looked up; her eyes were filled with unshed tears. B'Elanna's eyes danced side to side quickly searching her own, she watched as the young woman took in a deep breath, "you're not meaning what I think your meaning are you?" the tone of her voice was far softer, it was obvious that she was just as scared to think that what had happened had.

It was all she could do to nod; she didn't dare trust her voice. She dropped her gaze again unable to look at the pain that crossed the other woman's face at her admission.

"Oh Captain." B'Elanna said, not sure what else to say, "Kathryn" she corrected realizing that perhaps this was one time that a title just wasn't the right choice. She stood and pulled her into a hug, not sure what else to do.

It was then that she actually broke down, "I tried to tell him B'Elanna, but he got so angry he left, He promised he'd hear me out, but didn't." she managed to speak though her sobs, "he thinks I cheated on him."

B'Elanna rocked the older woman in her arms, whispering soothing words, trying to calm her down. She could feel the panic in her own body at the realization that someone had taken advantage of her. Who could do such a thing, and how did they manage to do so.

-=/\=-

Tom stood outside Chakotay's office waiting for admittance. He was nervous; though their relationship had improved a great deal over the last six years, he wasn't sure if he'd be willing to confide in him. Though, frankly there weren't a whole lot of other people to talk to on the ship.

The summons finally came and he cautiously walked in. Chakotay was sitting at his desk; it was obvious he was pretending to be working. "What is it Mr. Paris," his voice was harsh and to the point.

"I have my report Sir." He sated, holding it out to him. He took it and looked it over for a moment.

"Thank you," he stated setting it down with a click. When he noticed that Tom hadn't left yet he looked up, "is there anything else?"

"Actually yes there is, permission to speak freely?" he wasn't sure how well this was going to work.

Chakotay sighed and leaned back in his chair, "what is it Tom?" he softened his tone only slightly.

Tom looked at him and furrowed his brow, "are things between you and the Captain alright?"

His face visibly hardened at his reference to Kathryn. "That's none of your business, Tom." He stated quickly.

The blonde man looked down, "It's just we couldn't help but notice…" he was cut off.

"Tom, I said it's none of your business, now if there isn't anything else, you can go." It was plain and clear that he wasn't going to get more out of him.

"Yes, Sir" he stated and turned on his heal and left to return to his station. He hoped that B'Elanna was having more luck.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

-=/\=-

It'd been over twelve hours since Chakotay had found out that Kathryn was pregnant with someone else's child. Part of him wondered exactly who she'd been with during their time together. He thought back to fourteen weeks prior, she'd gone on a mission with Tom to a planet and had been gone for nearly six days. Could she really have had an affair with someone on the planet, or worse, could Tom and she have both cheated.

What would B'Elanna do if she found out that Tom had cheated on her, well she probably wouldn't have reacted quite as calmly as he had, they'd probably find both Tom and the Captain floating in space. He sighed pushing the thought away, would either one of them seriously do that? He decided that she either had another partner on the ship, or she'd had an affair with one of the aliens she'd been negotiating with. None of this made any since to him.

His chime rang; he really wasn't in the mood for company, what if it was her? He couldn't stand to face her, not yet. He'd purposefully walked away from her to keep himself from doing something stupid. He wasn't typically a violent man, but he saw red when she'd told him. The chime rang again and he decided that he'd answer it; he prayed that it wasn't Kathryn.

B'Elanna walked into Chakotay's quarters, the lights were low, she could see his medicine bundle sitting on the coffee table, it was wrapped up. He stood up, "B'Elanna?" he asked surprised to see her.

She walked up to him, "we need to talk." She told him, he knew the tone in her voice, she was not happy with him about something.

"Alright," he said, "would you like something first?" he asked, not sure what this was all about. He was completely unaware that she'd been talking with Kathryn, and he knew she wasn't on the bridge when everything went down, so he didn't think that she knew anything.

"No, just to talk." She sat down without asking on his couch.

He took a seat across from her. "What's up B'E?" he asked.

She looked him straight in the eyes, "I had an interesting conversation with the Captain this afternoon." She watched his reaction; his face became set, and his jaw tensed up. Anger flashed in his eyes. He nodded not sure how much she knew of the situation. "Tom came to me in engineering during his break with some interesting information, so I went to go and see how much merit he'd had. When I entered the ready room she was nearly in shambles."

He crossed his arms but still didn't respond, he wasn't sure he wanted to know how much she knew. She was becoming angry at him, herself for how he was acting. "She told me…"

He finally broke his silence as he stood; his posture said everything, "she told you about her condition right?" He turned back to look at her, placing his hands on the back of the chair, "did she tell you it's not mine?"

"Yes, she did as a matter of fact." She too had stood.

He laughed in jest, "did she at least tell you who the father was? I would really like to know who she's been sleeping with behind my back." He was now pacing back and forth.

She raised her voice some, "No, she didn't tell me who the father was, because she doesn't know."

He stopped and looked at her, the boiling rage building up inside him once more. He laughed maniacally and started heading towards his bedroom. B'Elanna recognized a retreat when she saw one and quickly made her way in front of him. "B'Elanna move" he stated in a low tone.

"No, not until you hear me out or is that the latest thing? You say that you'll hear someone out and then you leave before they have a chance to explain themselves." Her eyes flashed as she looked deeply into his. Her temper was just as hot as his was at the moment. "She told me you promised that you would hear her completely out before you said or did anything, but you broke that promise." She'd crossed her arms in front of her chest and lifted her head as tall as she could.

He turned to walk away from her and she reached out and grabbed his arm. "Don't walk away from me," He attempted to break her grip but she had a firm one, "listen," her voice softened, "She loves you more than anything in the universe and would never cheat on you. It wasn't her choice to get pregnant; she doesn't know who the father is because she was violated." He stopped shock playing across his features, B'Elanna let go of his wrist as he turned to look at her. "She tried to tell you" she finished.

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, "Oh my spirits." He felt weak in the knees; B'Elanna guided him back to the couch and had him sit down. "I was just so angry at the thought that she could have… I"

B'Elanna coked her head to the side, "you didn't get her a chance to say otherwise." She sat down and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I know, I was pretty angry when I'd heard her say that the baby wasn't yours, I wanted to scream at her and shout at her, but I gave her a chance to explain, at first I wasn't going to, but it really wasn't fair to not at least give her that."

He looked at the woman before him, she was wise, "I know, but I mean, we haven't even crossed the line, to think that she'd, with someone else, Oh man what have I done." He wasn't usually one to break a promise, and this time it was one that was very important.

"I would suggest that you go to her, she'll be out of sickbay in about an hour. I just dropped her off. The Doctor is trying to figure out who the father is. She hasn't told Tuvok yet, because she wants to make sure it isn't a member of the crew before her personal life gets spread all over the ship." She was trying to give him as much support as she could as well.

He nodded, he didn't know how to react; he looked B'Elanna in the eyes, "forgive an old fool?"

She nodded, and opened her arms to hug him. "So help me Chakotay, if I find who did this, I'm going to rip their heart out of their chest and eat it raw." She stated through gritted teeth.

He released her and looked her in the eyes, "not if I get to him first."

-=/\=-

The Doctor finished his scan he'd had her sedated because of how deeply he needed to scan, she couldn't' move during it. He pressed a hypo-spray into her neck and watched as she slowly awoke. She moved her head side to side and then finally settled onto the Doctor's face. Her mouth only twitched slightly in an acknowledgement that he was finished. He reached his hand out to her and helped her into a sitting position.

She swung her legs over the edge of the biobed griping it slightly. She looked down at her feet, she was cold; the doctor had had her remove everything but her tank and shorts. He placed his hand on her shoulder. "I will have the results in about twenty minutes, but, the baby is one hundred percent human, there is no alien DNA."

She looked up at him her eyes wide; the implication of his statement sent a shockwave of fear through her, not just for herself but for the other woman on her ship. "You're certain?"

He nodded, "I'm afraid so."

"Thank you, that means there someone else I should talk to right now." She was about to stand when he stopped her.

"Captain with all due respect, you need to eat something, you haven't had anything since yesterday evening, and I don't need to remind you that you hadn't kept very much of it. You're not going to do yourself any favors by starving." He was concerned, even though she at this point wasn't sure if she was going to keep the child within her or not, it would still take every bit of her reserves. She was already shaking and had almost no color in her cheeks.

"I'm just not hungry Doctor." She looked him in the eyes; they held a sad hunted expression.

He sighed and grabbed a hypo-spray and pressed a few buttons, "here, at least this will help some, I still want you to eat something but that will at least bring your blood sugar and electrolyte levels up, it is also chopped full of vitamins."

She rubbed her neck where the hypo-spray had been pressed too. She nodded and stood; she grabbed the rest of her uniform off of the table and quickly put it on. She had no intention of walking though the ship without being fully covered, not if there was someone out there that would take sick sadistic pleasure in seeing her in the state of undress.

No more words were exchanged as she prepared herself to leave. He would call her with the results, he knew the person she was going to talk to was Tuvok, since it appeared that there was a member of the crew that had done this, it was time to notify him.

-=/\=-

Tuvok was in deep meditation when it was interrupted by the sound of his door. Opening his eyes he looked up and stood. "Enter" he stated and watched as the person who'd interrupted him moved into the room. She stopped, she saw that he'd been meditating, she felt bad for interrupting him. She took a deep breath and waited. "Captain" he stated moving closer to her. "Computer lights fifty percent."

"I'm sorry for interrupting you." She stated not looking at him.

"No apology necessary," he moved over to the replicator and pressed a couple of buttons, he handed her the glass of spiced tea.

"Thank you" she still wasn't sure how she was going to explain what was wrong.

"Please have a seat." He motioned for the couch. She only nodded and walked to where he'd indicated, she carefully sat down. He took a seat next to her and clasped his hands together, "what is troubling you?" he inquired, he knew her well enough to know this wasn't a social call. Her body language coupled with the earlier events he'd witnessed on the bridge wasn't hard to ignore, something was amiss.

She looked up to look him in the face; he was so calm she was hoping that some of it would rub off on her. "Tuvok, there's serious security issue on this ship." She started.

He raised his eyebrow, "Captain?" he questioned; he'd been unaware that there was anything that needed his attention aside from routine operations. He took note that her hands were shaking as she held the cup. He reached out and placed one hand on hers stalling the movement.

"Tuvok, someone on this ship." She looked away and down to where he held onto her hand. She took a deep breath, "About Fourteen weeks ago, I apparently was assaulted," she took pause, "sexually" she added, "the problem is I can't remember anything." She looked into his face her eyes searching his.

He nodded, "I will look into the matter immediately, are your certain of this happening?" he asked her, he needed to know logically how she had come to this conclusion. He'd also inquired because she had said that she had no knowledge of the event.

She nodded and placed the cup she'd been holding down on the coffee table. "I'm one hundred percent certain that I was violated," she took a breath; "the evidence is here." She placed her hand on her lower abdomen. "I found out last night, I didn't tell you right away because we weren't sure if it was a member of the crew or not." Her voice was calm as she spoke; she was beyond the emotional stage with everything that had happened. She was numb. "I just came from sickbay, the doctor took some deep level DNA scans of the fetus, he'll know who the father is in about fifteen minutes, but he confirmed that it is human."

Tuvok nodded, "that leaves only a member of the crew."

She nodded and looked at him, "I want you to come with me when I get the results." She looked down at the hand that still rested on hers, the contrast of their skin together accenting the smallness of her hand. "Both as my friend, and as my chief of security, once we know who it was, I want him to be arrested."

He nodded. "And what about the commander?" he asked.

She looked down and her ability to control her emotions began to wane, "we, we're not on very good terms right now."

He nodded, "I will help you in any way I can."

She looked up into his eyes again, she reached out and hugged him, "Tuvok, what would I ever do without you?" she asked. He knew this was rhetorical question and simply mimicked what he knew was the appropriate response to the embrace. He placed one had on her back and the other on her head simply patting it for a moment until she broke the hug. The two of them then sat in silence as they waited for the Doctor to summon her.

-=/\=-

In the mess hall Tom was getting anxious, B'Elanna and he were supposed to meet up for dinner, but she was a no show. He looked up when he saw Harry come over carrying his dinner try. "So any idea about what's going on between the command team?" he asked as he took his seat across from Tom.

"Nothing, I went to go and talk with him, but he wasn't having any of it. B'Elanna went to talk with the Captain, but I haven't seen her since I watched her disappear into the ready room." He leaned back and looked towards the door, "she was supposed to meet me for dinner."

"Have you asked the computer where she is?" Harry inquired.

"No, she could be with the Captain still, or she could be talking with Chakotay." Tom took a sip of his coffee. "I just wish I knew what was going on."

The two men looked up as Neelix came up to the table; he took a chair and flipped it around sitting down with his arms resting on the back of it. "So do you two have any ideas about what might have happened between the command team?"

Harry looked at him, "what'd you hear?" he asked wondering who'd let the events slip. He looked at Tom suspiciously.

"Hey it wasn't me" he stated, "the only person I told was B'Elanna, in her office."

"It wasn't Tom, it was Vorik he mentioned that there seemed to be some unrest with the command team. And then I heard a few more talking like they'd broken up. I was wondering how much of this was true?" he was asking out of his own curiosity and the fact that if the command team had broken up, it could be very bad for the crew's moral.

"Well I don't know what they heard, but as far as we know they simply had a fight, couples do have fights. Until we know more I suggest that we try to play rumor mill damage control, because if they have had an argument, which we suspect they have, that is the last thing that needs to get back to them that the whole ship is talking about it." Tom had become rather wise in the time he was on Voyager.

"I agree" Harry stated, he looked up to see Seven walk into the room, she approached their table.

"Is it true that the Captain has confined the Commander to his quarters for the rest of our journey back to the Alpha Quadrant?" she raised her silver implant towards her hair line as she stood with her hands joined behind her back.

Harry rolled his eyes, "No, and where did you hear that?" he asked.

"Tal Celes," she paused for a moment, "though her information isn't always accurate." She stated thoughtfully.

Tom looked at Neelix, "don't look now, but it sounds like we may have a ship wide outbreak of rumors already."

Seven just stood there wondering what exactly was being meant by their conversation, Neelix was starting to feel overwhelmed, and both Harry and Tom knew that the worst of it was still to come if someone didn't figure out how to patch things together soon.

-=/\=-

B'Elanna walked with Chakotay; he needed to talk to Kathryn. He felt very sheepish, he'd hurt her very badly on top of the injustice she'd already faced. They paused in front of her quarters and rang the chime, there was no answer. He rang a few more times. "I don't get it" B'Elanna stated, "she said when she was done with sickbay that she'd return to her quarters, I don't know where else she could be."

Chakotay nodded, "Computer, locate Captain Janeway."

"Captain Janeway is in sickbay." The computer's voice resonated through the corridor.

The two locked eyes with each other and headed back down direction they came, "I can't imagine the procedure taking that long." B'Elanna stated.

"She may be getting the results." He looked back towards the woman, he was walking quickly. The pair arrived in sickbay just a few minutes later.

-=/\=-

Kathryn, Tuvok, and the Doctor looked back as the doors to sickbay opened. Kathryn quickly looked away when she saw Chakotay.

He walked in and up to the other three B'Elanna holding back slightly. "Kathryn" he started using her name instead of her title. "Can we talk?"

She didn't turn to look at him, "I'm a little busy right now." She stated, her tone was harsher then she intended, the hurt from earlier coming back to sting.

He looked at the rest of the people in the room, and they all walked to the other side of sickbay leaving them alone. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she shrugged it off. She rested her arms on the consol; they hadn't quite gotten to the results when they were interrupted.

He watched her posture and could tell her resolve was breaking. "I'm sorry" he simply said.

She was crying but didn't want him to know. She tried to make her voice sound normal but failed miserably. "You didn't hear me out, even though you said you would." She slowly turned to look at him.

"I know, and I feel awful about that, B'Elanna told me everything." He looked down then up, he reached his hand out to touch her cheek; she let him leaning into the warmth slightly. His thumb brushed one of her tears away.

"You didn't trust me." She cried, "How could you think I'd ever do that to you."

"I understand now, it's just, I mean the circumstances, it pointed to what I thought. I know I should have let you finish, but I was so angry that I knew if I didn't leave that, I would have said or done something stupid." He reached up his other hand and cupped her face, "can you forgive me?" he looked deeply into her shimmering eyes.

She nodded crying harder, and she fell into his embrace. She needed him, she couldn't' face her current reality without him. He held on to her tightly trying to let her know how much he really did care for her. After a few moments she sniffed and then pulled away from him. She used the back of her hands to clear her eyes. "I think we need to find out who did this to me." She stated, she didn't want to know but she needed too. "I'd like you to stay, just you have to promise me; you'll let Tuvok handle him. I don't want to have to lock you in the brig for murder." She tried to make a joke, but she knew that there was a pretty good possibility of it happening.

He nodded, "as hard as it will be, I will."

She cleared her throat and then called out, "Doctor, we're ready." The other's came out of the other side of sickbay through the Doctor's office, B'Elanna was starting to walk towards the door. "B'Elanna." Kathryn said, "I think I'd like it if you were here too."

She nodded and walked up to stand next to her, Chakotay was behind her letting her know that he was there and wasn't planning on leaving her. The Doctor stood to her left and Tuvok just on the other side. The Doctor pressed a few buttons and the results of the exam were in front of them. He looked up at her, "I found something very interesting, if you look here, this is one strand of DNA in your baby." He stated pointing to an image of a base pair. And, this is your DNA," he pointed to another sequence; they were virtually identical except for the differences that would be expected between mother and child. They all nodded, "now, I found no match to the second strand of DNA on the ship."

She looked up into his face, "what do you mean? I don't need to remind you that we haven't exactly had contact with other humans out here aside from the crew." She stated.

"No you don't, I didn't find a match until I ran an even deeper level analysis." He brought up another strand of DNA, "look here, these two strands are nearly identical except there appears to be an unknown mutation here, here, and here." He pointed to a few of the base pairs. "That is why the computer didn't detect the similarities right away." She looked intently at the screen, "now if I bring up all three of the DNA Strands, we'll use yours as a base comparison, this is what I have."

All the people in the room starred at the screen, aside from the mutations that the Doctor and pointed out all three strands were identical. Kathryn's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, she laughed in disbelief, "Doctor, you're not saying that this baby is." She couldn't even figure out what the words were to describe what she was thinking.

"You and the fetus inside you share ninety eight percent of your DNA." He stated.

No one dare move, they all were thinking the same thing; Tuvok was the first to speak, "interesting."

Kathryn looked at Tuvok then back to the Doctor, "how is that even possible?" she could feel Chakotay's hand on her shoulder and B'Elanna's on her arm.

"I don't know, in essence the child you are carrying is a clone of you, sort of. Somehow your DNA was replicated, mutated, and fused with one of your eggs, how that happen I do not know." He looked at her, "It could have happened randomly due to some sort of anomaly that you were exposed to, or the more sinister possibility is that there was an experiment done on you, I don't need to tell you that it isn't the first time we've run into that possibility. Anyway, what we need to do to find out how this happened is to retrace everything that happened between fourteen to fifteen weeks ago."

Kathryn wasn't so traumatized now, there was a possibility that somehow this life inside her was created by accident, but then again it may not have been. She quickly snapped out of the shock and devastation she'd found herself in earlier in the day and slipped back into Captain Mode. "Doctor, I would like you to perform physicals on all crewmembers, if there is someone performing experiments on the crew we need to know about it. Tuvok, I want you to run full security sweeps of the ship, look for anything out of the ordinary, if this was an experiment I doubt that the people that are performing it would just leave without recording any results."

The two men nodded and said their 'Aye Captains' and she turned to address the other two that were with her in the room. "B'Elanna, see if you can help fine tune our sensors, if there something out there I'd like to be able to find it. Commander, we can discuss this situation over dinner, I'm feeling hungry and I will need to talk to Tom, to go over all the information we have from our away mission" she stopped and looked up, "We both had an incident where we felt like something was on the Delta Flyer with us, we can look over all available data. Also Doctor, if you can try to figure out how my DNA was mutated, it will probably be important to know." Everyone nodded again. "Alright let's get to work."

-=/\=-

Tom and Harry were about to leave when the doors opened and in walked B'Elanna, Chakotay, and Kathryn. They both looked relieved, "Mr. Paris, Kim" Kathryn stated motioning towards the far table in the corner. Chakotay grabbed three trays and followed the group to where Kathryn led them too.

Once they were seated she began to speak, "Mr. Kim, first thing in the morning I want you to assist Seven of Nine in astrometrics, I need you to take some long range scans of the Asteroid belt that surrounded the Ranok home world, Mr. Paris, I would like to have a meeting with you tomorrow, I need some more information about our away mission." They both nodded, "We'll have a staff meeting at 0900 hours tomorrow don't be late."

The two men stated in unison, "Yes Captain."

"Very good," she nodded, "that's all" she let them know that they were free to go. Harry took off immediately he had a few things that he'd needed to do before he turned in, Tom lingered behind. "Yes Tom?" she said in a softer tone, B'Elanna just looked up at him.

"Is everything alright?" he looked behind him to make sure there wasn't anyone else close by that would over hear them, "between you two?"

Chakotay nodded, "yes, it was a very _big_ misunderstanding, you'll know more tomorrow at the staff meeting."

Tom accepted this information and turned to B'Elanna, she smiled, "I'll catch up with you shortly. I was busy and as you know didn't get dinner."

He nodded and took off as well leaving Kathryn, B'Elanna, and Chakotay to discuss the day's events in peace. Thankfully no one on the crew had caused the problem, but all that was left now to decide was if she would keep the life that shared ninety eight percent of DNA or not, and how the life came to be in the first place.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

-=/\=-

She woke up and found herself in his arms. As much as she was enjoying the feeling of his warmth she knew she needed to get up and get up quickly, or they were both going to need a shower. She was out of bed and gone in her restroom within moments of waking.

He felt her move and awoke. He knew instantly where she was and what was happening, though the sound proofing was pretty decent, just the way she was up and gone told him all he needed to know. He stood up and found his combadge on the end table. "Chakotay to sickbay"

"Sickbay here, yes commander what can I do for you?" he questioned.

"I think the captain may need a little something" he stated not being specific, just in case there was anyone else in sickbay.

"Ah yes, I'll transport it to you right away." Within moments of his words a hypo-spray appeared on the bed.

"Thank you Doctor." He stated.

"You're welcome, it also as vitamins and minerals that she needs in it, I created an all in one." He sounded proud of himself, knowing full well she wasn't apt to making sure she got the nutrients she needed into her system. The link closed and Chakotay didn't have to wait long before she emerged from the bathroom. She looked very pale.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and looked up at him, "sorry I didn't mean to wake you."

He smiled, "that's fine" he sat down next to her and brushed her hair out of the way, and he pressed the hypo-spray into her neck. "I called the Doctor."

Her hand went to the spot he'd injected her, she rubbed it subconsciously, "thanks," she looked down, "I thought most woman's morning sickness disappeared after thirteen weeks, mine seems to have gotten worse."

"Well every body is different. Besides I heard that my mother had morning sickness with me up until the day I was born." He was trying to reassure her that there wasn't anything wrong with her but his words only made things worse.

"Oh don't tell me that." she reached her hand up and rubbed her temple.

"Sorry" he looked down. Then he realized what she'd said, "you've decided to keep it?"

She nodded, "I couldn't kill it, in away it'd almost be like killing myself, I guess." her eyes moved side to side and her expression changed very exaggeratedly as she spoke. "Besides, this child is more mine then any child I would conceive, and, even if I had been assaulted by a member of this crew or one of the Ranokians, I don't think I could kill it. It's a living being, an innocent one at that."

He smiled, "I'm glad to hear you say that, for a bit there after the way you talked last night I was beginning to become worried."

She nodded, "I know, but those were valid concerns." She looked at her hands that were fidgeting in her lap.

"I know" she'd invited him back to her quarters after dinner, and they'd spoke well into the night. About how her carrying the baby would affect the crew, how she would handle being a mother and a captain and many other events. She'd surprised him and asked if he would stay with her. They didn't cross any other barriers; she just didn't want to be alone. He was glad that after how he'd acted she wasn't pushing him away. "Anyway, I just want you to know, that I will help you no matter what you need to get through this, that's a promise." He placed a kiss on her forehead, letting her know that he meant what he said.

She closed her eyes and leaned into him. She loved being close to him, and when he'd flipped out she had become scared that she'd lost him forever. Thankfully that hadn't been the case. She sighed and looked up at him, "I think we should try for a couple more hours sleep, it's still early." She was still very tired from everything and the fact that she hadn't really slept the night before had caught up with her. If it hadn't been for the fact she needed to get up she wouldn't have.

He nodded, and moved back to the side of the bed he'd been sleeping on. She lay down and he pulled the blankets up and over both of them. She closed her eyes and snuggled into his embrace as he wrapped and arm around her making sure to avoid putting pressure on her stomach, instead he allowed his arm to rest across her hip. She was soon back to sleep, letting him to listen to her breath in the dark.

-=/\=-

The senior staff talked amongst themselves as they waited for Kathryn and Chakotay. They'd been told to be there at 0900 hours, yet they, were the ones that were late. B'Elanna, Tuvok, and the Doctor were the only ones that knew the full extent of what the meeting was going to be about, but said nothing; it wasn't their place.

At about ten after the doors finally opened, Chakotay walked in and went to the Doctor immediately. He knelt down and whispered something into his ear and he nodded and stood up instantly. Chakotay watched as he left and took his seat. "The Captain will be here soon," was all he said. B'Elanna looked at him, hoping that everything was alright.

-=/\=-

There was no attempt made on her part to look up when she heard the doors to her ready room open. She only remained laying on the couch with one arm over her eyes. She spoke very quietly so that she didn't hurt herself, "perhaps you should include migraine medication in that lovely hypo-spray of yours Doctor." The headache had started off slowly in the early morning but increased progressively. It was now to the point she didn't dare move or look at anything with lights.

He knelt down next to her and scanned her head. Sure enough the tricorder displayed a classic neurological pattern indicative of a migraine. He pressed another hypo-spray into her neck, "it won't completely rid you of the headache because I can't give you anything stronger, but it should reduce it to a mild throb. I suggest after the meeting that you use a cold compress."

She nodded once the searing pain simmered down. "Thank you Doctor, I think I can manage now." She moved her arm off of her eyes, the light was still a bit bright but she could deal with it. She slowly sat up not wanting to get dizzy.

"I suggest that you cut back your coffee intake under the circumstances." He stated as he stood up. He reached his hand out to assist her.

She looked down as she stood in the manner of a teenager that had just been told she couldn't go out to a party, "I figured you were going to say that."

He smiled and nodded, "alright now I think we'd best be getting to the staff meeting."

She led the way to the briefing room.

-=/\=-

"Sorry I'm late" was her words as she made her way to the head of the table. The Doctor resumed where he'd been sitting before he was called away. "We had a minor medical emergency." She stated letting the crew know that she was fine. She took a deep breath; there was only one way to inform the rest of the senior staff about her condition, which was to just simply tell them. "As many of you know, I've ordered a few things on this ship that will affect the crew, such as scans of the Asteroid Belt, and for everyone to report to sickbay for a full physical exam. The reason for these orders is, I believe that either Voyager." She looked down and placed her hands on the back of her chair, she hadn't even sat down yet. "Primarily I have either been the victim of an alien experiment, or a random anomaly."

She looked around the table, Seven, Harry, and Tom were looking at her with very confused expressions. She continued. "It came to my attention two days ago that somehow I'd been impregnated, roughly fourteen weeks ago." She stated, watching the faces of the individuals that didn't already know. Harry's mouth was on the floor right alongside of Tom's and Seven's implant was in her hair line. "The child I am carrying is a fourteen weeks after implantation, and is a human female that shares ninety eight percent of my DNA, a few of the base pair sequences have been mutated. We're not sure how this happened. That is why we are investigating any and all possible anomalies that may have occurred or any evidence of intentional actions." She paused and waited for any questions.

She nodded towards Tom when he motioned that he'd like to say something. "Are you saying that you're pregnant with your own clone?"

The Doctor spoke up, "I thought that to be the case at first; however the DNA was mutated before it fused together with one of her eggs. The mutations appear to have a very specific pattern to them. In essence it's almost as if there were two separate donors, the child she is carrying will be completely unique, in a cloning situation the clone would be an exact copy of the individual right down to the finger prints. The only difference would be the memories; also during the cloning process growth is accelerated because cells try to grow to the age they were before. Therefore she would have already given birth, cloning acceleration happens nearly ten times faster than normal growth."

"Any way, weather I'm carrying my daughter, a clone of myself, or my own twin, the point is somehow, I became pregnant with her, what we're looking for is how, and can this happen again to anyone else. If it was a random anomaly it's important that we document it, if it was the result of malicious intent to experiment on us again we need to know that too, to prevent it from happening to other's just like us." She finally made her way to the front of her chair to sit down. "Are there any more questions or ideas?" she asked trying to judge the reaction of the crew.

Harry nodded, "What are we to tell the rest of the crew?" he asked.

She sighed, "Well I guess we should let them know, I'll make an announcement about my condition in a couple of hours, it's not like I'll be able to hide it for long; my clothes are already becoming tight." She looked around the room. "Anything else?" no one moved, "in that case you're dismissed, Tom I'd like you to stay; we can have our meeting now."

He nodded and watched as everyone else left the room, Chakotay even did which was unusual. Tom moved closer to where the captain was sitting. She looked up at him and spoke again, "Tom, I first would like to thank you for yesterday, if you hadn't talked to B'Elanna and encouraged her to come and see me, things may have been more difficult then they needed to be."

He nodded, "I promise I didn't tell anyone else, I was just concerned because you'd been on wonderful terms the night before. I assume your condition is what the misunderstanding was about?" he asked checking to see if they were indeed on the same page.

She nodded, then got down to business, "I can't help but think that my condition is due to the incident we had on the Flyer, is there anything else you can remember about it, any strange sensor readings background noise that could indicate that there was something else on that shuttle with us."

He looked down and thought about it, "I really don't know, like I said it was an eerie feeling of being watched."

She decided to crack a slight joke, "at least it only decided to watch you."

He stopped and looked down and laughed slightly, "sorry" he said sheepishly.

She smiled to the young man, "let's see, all the logs should still be in the flyer, perhaps we should go to the holodeck and do some investigation into it. We can download all the information and recreate our flight. Maybe we missed something."

He nodded, "I'll go and retrieve the data, I'll meet you down there in about ten minutes?" he asked.

"That sounds good to me" She stood and made her way out of the doors to the bridge; he followed her but went straight to the turbo lift. She stopped to inform Chakotay of what their plan was, she looked around Harry wasn't at his post but she knew where he was he was helping Seven in astrometrics. Everyone else was busy with their assigned tasks; the whole crew was working to find out the origins of the new life inside her.

-=/\=-

A loud sigh came from across the room, still nothing. "We've run the simulation five times, and still I'm not picking up anything unusual." Tom stated, he was frustrated, they were both sure that what had happened to her happened there.

"Let's reset and run a narrowband filter on the sensors, perhaps we might be able to detect something more." Kathryn stated as she rounded the outside of the shuttle, they were using a scale model of the shuttle so that they could see from all angles and read all the data themselves.

B'Elanna walked in, "perhaps you should try a magneton sweep of the real shuttle; you may detect something. She stated, she'd come down after Tom had failed to come to eat lunch with her.

Kathryn looked over her shoulder at the half Klingon woman, "that's a good idea, lets first run this and then after lunch we can try that." She called for the computer to resume the simulation, once again nothing. "Okay, lunch time." She was feeling hungry and if she didn't go soon she knew she'd have more than B'Elanna down there after her.

"Chakotay's already waiting for us in the mess hall." B'Elanna noted, "along with Seven, Harry, and Tuvok."

"Everyone?" Kathryn asked surprised.

"Chakotay thought it might be a good way for all of us to get brought up to date with everything that we've found, or haven't found. The Doctor will be meeting us too, he's gone though the entire crew already." She stated as they stopped and waited for the lift. Once it arrived they stepped on to it.

"I'm sure Seven thought his plan was very efficient." Kathryn noted causing the other two to laugh slightly.

-=/\=-

The meal went well, and no one really had much to report other than their scans were inconclusive and there wasn't anything abnormal about them. The good news was the Doctor's scans of the rest of the crew were the same, she was the only person that seemed to have been affected by whatever it was. That included the fact that Tom's tests all came back normal as well.

After they were done eating Kathryn decided to have Tom, B'Elanna, and Seven accompany her to the shuttle bay, B'Elanna's idea had some merit.

-=/\=-

She stood back while the other three initiated the scan, she knew that she couldn't be in the path of the magneton sweep because the possible health risks to the developing fetus. She hated to admit it but she was becoming attached to it. She may have not wanted to become a mother right away or in the manner in which she was going to become one, but the idea of new life growing and developing inside her was something she'd given up on after they were stranded.

"It's safe for you to come out from behind there now." B'Elanna stated indicating the force field that had been erected to keep her safe.

She proceeded with her tricorder out towards the flyer. It beeped and she furrowed her brow. "Wait a second, I think I'm picking something up." She scanned the outside of the hull, "yes I am it's an energy signature." She stated indicating to a section of the outer hull, "it appears to go right though the bulkhead and into the shuttle."

Tom noted the signature too, "I've got it too on this side." He was referring to the other side of the hull; the first signature was detected in the forward section and the second in the aft.

"B'Elanna is there any way that we can scan the entire shuttle specifically for this energy signature?" she looked over to the woman standing at the very front of the shuttle.

"I believe I can" she stated.

"Do it and transfer all data to holodeck two, Mr. Paris, Seven you're with me." She stated as hurried out of the shuttle bay.

Tom caught up with her, "What are you thinking?" he asked as he fell instep next to her.

"That energy signature we found is the same as the mutations in the DNA of the baby." She stated, "I have a feeling that, whatever left that signature is responsible for what happened to me."

-=/\=-

Once B'Elanna sent the scans she joined the others. Kathryn punched a few buttons on a consol and soon they were looking at the inside of the flyer. She programmed the computer to display any evidence of the energy signature they'd collected. What they saw astounded them, a trail lead from the interior bulk head they'd first noticed in the fore section of the shuttle to the aft, and it seemed to hover over the bed in which Kathryn had lay. She narrowed her eyes, looking at the path that it'd taken.

"Look at this" she stated motioning to the bed, the signature dipped down drastically. She sat down on the bed and then lay down; sure enough the energy signature appeared to disappear into her body at her chest and then reappeared from about where her belly button was. She sat up and looked at them, "I don't think this was a coincidence either."

Tom shook his head, "now the only question is what left that energy signature in the shuttle?"

Seven looked at the readings and contemplated on something, she opened her eyes quickly as she realized something that had been assimilated by the Borg, "species 0341"

"Seven?" Kathryn questioned.

"A non-corporeal life form," she stated as she recalled the information that had been stored deep in her mind.

"Non-corporeal" Tom questioned, "are you saying that, a non-corporeal life form mated with the Captain?" they were in the Delta Quadrant, apparently anything was possible.

"Indeed, if my memory serves me correctly, there have been other incidences of this phenomenon happening," she paused and looked concerned, "why hadn't I realized this before?"

Kathryn smiled slightly at Seven's sudden worry about having not recalled the information immediately. "Seven, sometimes it takes a little something to jog the old memory. And so far this seems to be the most logical explanation for the events short of Immaculate Conception." She looked around, "okay so we now know the, who or rather what, the where, now the questions we still don't have an answer for how or why, and I for one would like to have those answers."

Seven quickly formulated an explanation for the later of the inquiries. "From the records of species 99374, this energy signature is known to reproduce in a corporeal fashion as well as a non-corporeal fashion. It is an intelligent life form, and it seeks to study other forms of life. On the home world of species 99374 it was considered a great honor to have been blessed with a child from this species." She finally finished.

Kathryn looked at her dumbfounded, this was a significant amount of information that she'd forgotten. "Obviously this life form doesn't know how to ask for a date first." Kathryn finally stated.

B'Elanna and Tom laughed and Seven merely looked at her and stated, "obviously."

"Alright now that we have an idea of what happened, let's take all the information we have gathered down to the Doctor, maybe he can fill in the missing parts, and Seven, just to be on the safe side, I'd like to get you checked out too, that was a significant memory lapse." She stated eyeing the ex-drone.

She nodded and the group then found their way to sickbay. This was most certainly turning out to be one of the more eventful weeks on Voyager.

-=/\=-

With the knowledge that it was a non-corporeal life form that had supposedly impregnated her, the Doctor was able to search and confirm a neurological signature within not just the residual energy filed but the mutations of her DNA strands. Seven had been correct; this new information also brought into light a possible explanation of how the mutations occurred. The being, not having true DNA had taken hers and infused its own pattern within it, and then fused the new signature to one of her eggs, thus creating enough genetic material to start the process of development.

In some ways this information was comforting, but at the same time it was disturbing that unbeknownst to her a life form had had sex with her without her knowledge. But at the same time, it obviously didn't know any better. Seven's own exam turned out to be fine; the Doctor merely stated that it was something that was bound to happen eventually, more of her human physiology exhibiting itself. If it hadn't been for the discovery of the energy signature she may never have recalled the information.

-=/\=-

Kathryn lay on her couch with her head on Chakotay's lap, "I'm really not sure how I'm going to enter this one into the long." She sighed. She had a cool compress on her head, the headache she'd had early had started to resurface.

He laughed slightly, "I remember when I told Tuvok the same thing, after Tom had kidnapped you and we found the two of you and your offspring on that planet."

She rolled her eyes, "don't remind me" she laughed. She became serious, "what if we weren't able to figure it out?"

"I don't know" he stated looking down into her face.

"I'm just glad that what we first thought had happened hadn't, I don't know what I would have done." She looked down across her body, she was still flat but there was some evidence on her sides of the fact that she was expecting.

"I don't know what I would have done either." He simply stated. The two sat in silence for a bit.

She started laughing, "Oh what is Starfleet going to think about this?"

"Well if and when we come to that, we will come to that." He stated wrapping his arms around her, "besides, after all if it is going to take a very long time to get home, we will need replacement crew, and who better then to replace the captain, then well, the captain" he stated with a laugh.

She looked down at her hands, "She's not really me" she said placing her hand on her belly. She wondered just how much she'd look like herself. She looked back to him, "think the Doctor might be able to show me a projection of her?"

"I'm sure he could." He placed his hand on top of the one that rested on her abdomen, "I for one hope she looks almost exactly like you. He leaned down and placed a kiss on her lips playfully.

She sat up and turned to face him, "Well, I don't think that will be an issue." She stated she pressed herself up against his body and took his mouth into hers. She sighed at the taste of him. She released his mouth and looked up at him, and lazily traced his Tattoo. She smiled deviously; she was going to let him know how much she loved him once and for all. She drew his mouth to hers once more while straddling him.

She grinned when he sighed into her mouth at the contact with his lower half, seductively she rocked her hips against him and sighed herself at the sensation. She broke the kiss then looked into his eyes, "I do love you, with all my heart. I guess it took nearly losing you to make me see that."

He smiled at her words, "I love you too, and I was a fool to think that you'd ever willingly hurt me."

She took his face into her hands, "stay with me tonight," she paused and looked down then back up, "make love with me tonight." That was the last thing she had to ask; he lifted her up and carried her to her bed. He paused only for a moment. She laughed at his uncertainty, "I already asked the Doctor, you can hurt her." He needed no other encouragement.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

A/N: This Chapter takes place during episode season six' episode sixteen: Collective. Since this is an AU story, I wanted to try and bring some of the episodes that we remember into the universe that has been created by the beginning of this story. I had a wonderful idea for a few of the scenes in this particular episode. I also decided to add a few more details that weren't necessarily in the original but would have made the story that much better! Also before you say anything at the end, yes I have also left out some things. However, I hope that you are enjoying the story so far, and I hope that you like this chapter as well.

-=/\=-

"Come on, you've got to get up" Kathryn stated as she tossed a pillow onto his head.

"Why?" he sighed as he turned over onto his side, trying to ignore the fact that he had to be up.

She rolled her eyes at him, "Because you have an away mission to go on, I'm sure Neelix, Harry, and Tom would appreciate it if the head of their team wasn't late." She called back over her shoulder as she vanished into the bathroom to freshen up. She smiled to herself as she heard him groan as he got out of bed.

She laughed as she found her neck being nuzzled. "Hey, that's not going to get either of us to work on time." Despite her words her body leaned into him. Over the last week she'd began to get used to the idea of him being there in the morning. She was going to miss him while he was gone, but they needed to go on this mission. She opened her eyes quickly as she felt a strange sensation. She moved out of his embrace, and turned to look at him.

"Kathryn?" he questioned, "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," she paused again, she wasn't a very large woman, and though her clothing had become tighter she really wasn't very big yet, then again she was still only fifteen weeks, "Oh, there it is again."

He was growing concerned but when she looked up at him her expression said that he shouldn't be worried. "What?" he questioned again.

"I felt, a strange fluttering sensation right here." She said taking his hand and placing it to the right side of her belly button. The sensation moved though her again. "Did you feel that?" she asked looking into his eyes.

He shook his head, "I didn't feel anything." He realized what she was trying to show him, and was sad that he wasn't able to feel anything himself.

She looked down a bit disappointed and released his hand. Looking back up she smiled, "perhaps she's just not strong enough yet." She grinned. "Besides it could have been gas, but I don't think it was." He smiled at her and leaned in for a kiss. She sighed into his mouth and when they broke she stood there content for a moment her forehead touching his. After a few fleeting moments she spoke again, "Okay, get ready." She turned her attention back to the mirror.

He left the bathroom only after he gave her a quick tap on her backside; he chuckled lightly when she let out a startled scream and looked after him with a glare.

-=/\=-

It'd been too long, something wasn't right, the away team should have been back by now. Kathryn walked out onto the bridge, "any sign of the Delta Flyer."

"No, but I am detecting an ion trail." Tuvok stated.

"Follow it" Kathryn ordered, she turned and put her hands on her hips and stared at the view screen.

Voyager followed the ion trail for about ten minutes, Kathryn was pacing back and forth it wasn't like an away team not to report in, or to meet their rendezvous. She turned to look at Tuvok when he spoke "Their ion trail ends directly ahead."

She turned her attention to B'Elanna who was filling in for Harry at ops. "I'm detecting another vessel, bearing thirty; mark one, one, two." The younger woman paused for a moment then announced, "It's a Borg cube."

Kathryn turned on her heal her eyes wide, "Red alert." She called, the lights on the bridge immediately dimmed and the klaxons began sound and red lights started to flash. She made her way towards her chair issuing orders, "Alter course to intercept. Adjust shields to rotating frequencies." She paused in front of her chair, "Have they detected us?"

Tuvok, while pressing buttons on his consol, stated, "Unclear. The vessel's holding position." He looked up from his for a moment.

"As soon as we're within sensor range, start scanning for the away team." She took her seat, "On screen." Her eyes were transfixed on the image of the cube that had apparently abducted the Delta Flyer. She was hoping with all her heart that they hadn't already been assimilated.

From behind her she heard Seven say something, "Their propulsion system is offline." The young blonde woman pressed some buttons, "The damage is not that severe." She looked up confused, "The drones should've repaired it by now."

"Lucky for us they didn't, or we'd never have caught up with them." She pressed a few commands into the center console and turned her head to look over her shoulder towards B'Elanna. "Any sign of our people?"

B'Elanna looked from Kathryn to the instrument panel as she pressed a button it beeped. "Not yet."

Just then Voyager shook violently when the cube fired on them. "They are targeting our warp core. Shields are holding." Tuvok calmly reported.

Taking in a few readings Kathryn simply said, "Return fire. Aim for their weapons array."

The ship shook again and B'Elanna announced, "Now they're going after our impulse engines." B'Elanna grabbed the edge of her station as the ship shook again; she looked up "That one was meant for our sensors. They can't seem to make up their minds."

Seven by now had analyzed the situation and had a few things to input as the Borg cube continued to fire upon them, "Their attack strategy is erratic, inefficient." She was highly confused by the current situation, she looked back towards Tuvok.

"And finished. We've disabled their weapons." He pressed buttons confirming what he'd said.

B'Elanna was puzzled, "That was too easy." She stated in disbelief.

Kathryn took this to be hopeful news; maybe just maybe there was a chance that her away team was alright. She was looking in the direction of B'Elanna, "Maybe they're in worse shape than we thought." Her attention was drawn back to Tuvok when she heard some very hopeful news.

"I'm picking up non-Borg life signs. One of them is definitely Talaxian." He took pause, to read his consol, "It looks as though they haven't been assimilated yet." He made eye contact with Kathryn briefly.

"Try to get a transporter lock." Kathryn ordered.

B'Elanna tried but failed, "Their shields are interfering."

She returned her gaze to the view screen. "Target their shield generator and fire."

Seven had been taking scans of the cube and made a discovery she felt she needed to inform the captain about, "Captain, I believe I can explain the unusual behavior of these Borg." She looked up from her readings as she spoke, "There should be thousands of drones manning the vessel," The young woman's attention went from the screen to lock eyes with Kathryn as she continued, "but I'm picking up only five signatures."

All attention went to the front of the ship when the all too familiar sound of the Borg filled the room, "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

The half Klingon manning the ops station couldn't help herself and cracked a small joke, partly out of anger and annoyance and the fact she'd been around Tom way too long. "It doesn't sound like they've lost their confidence."

Kathryn started fuming when Tuvok reported, "Their shield generators are too deep inside the vessel. Our weapons can't reach them."

"Open a channel." She slowly stood up and with a cat like stock she moved towards the view screen as she spoke, "Borg vessel, this is the Starship Voyager." Her voice was slow and deliberate, "You're holding our crewmen. We're willing to cease firing if you return them."

"Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated." The ship replied.

"Not today, and not by you," She really had had enough of this; "Agree, or I'll resume firing." She hoped they'd agree she didn't want to risk killing the away team.

"They are scanning us." Tuvok stated everyone watched the screen to see what would happen next. This was by far the strangest encounter they'd ever had with the Borg.

"We will return your crewmembers in exchange for specific technology." The collective voice stated; it was beginning to wear on everyone's nerves.

B'Elanna was shocked; she turned and looked towards where the captain was standing. "Talk about unusual behavior," Her voice was somewhat wary, "The Borg negotiating?"

Kathryn lifted her left hand to silence her, her gaze remained intent on the screen, she decided since she had them talking she would try and push her luck. "What technology?"

The disembodied voice rang through the room again, "Your navigational deflector" it paused then ordered, "Disengage it from your secondary hull."

"Mute audio." She ordered as she turned to look at Tuvok and walked over to the railing, she placed her hands on it and listened to what he had to say.

"If we surrender our deflector, we'll be dead in space. We won't be able to go to warp." He looked her right in the eyes.

"What would they want with it?" she was confused, why would they want the deflector dish? Her brows were furrowed as she thought about any possibilities.

Seven had the answer, "When their communications array was damaged it severed their link to the Collective. They intend to adapt our deflector to regain it."

Kathryn had turned from Tuvok to look at Seven, she began walking back towards her chair, "And call for reinforcements? That's the last thing we need." She stopped in front of her chair once more, "We'll have to stall them until we can find another way out of this." She signaled with her right hand for Tuvok to reactivate the audio, she walked towards the screen once more, "I'll consider the exchange, but first I want to be certain my crewmen are unharmed and alive."

She would have continued talking but the Borg cut her off, "You have scanned our vessel."

"Our scans were inconclusive. We want to see them for ourselves." She was bluffing and hoped that they'd call it. There was silence on the bridge as everyone waited for a response.

The Borg finally gave in, "You may transport one individual."

Kathryn took a slight step back before she turned to look at Seven, she was the best one suited for this particular job. She simply stated her name and watched as the young woman left the bridge to transport to the Borg cube. She took a deep breath and returned to her seat. This was turning out to be one hell of a day.

-=/\=-

Kathryn had retired to her ready room to read over the information that she had. Seven was on the cube. She was hoping that they'd be able to save their crew. She stood and paced back and forth. She tried to remain focused on what she needed to do. She sat down, and looked over the readings again. She lifted up the cup that was sitting on her desk; it was warm and somewhat soothing.

She looked up when her chime rang, it was Seven. "Captain, the drones over on the vessel are neo-natal."

Kathryn stood and lowered her eyebrows, "are you telling me that we are dealing with children?" she sat on the edge of her desk eyeing the other woman.

"Yes" she stated, "when the adult drones died the ship malfunctioned and several children prematurely emerged from their maturation chambers."

Kathryn didn't like this one bit; it was one thing to deal with adult drones but children. She looked down then up her hand subconsciously moving to her lower abdomen, "the away team?" she questioned.

"Aside from a few minor injuries Commander Chakotay, Lt. Paris, and Neelix are fine. Harry was not with them, and they appeared to have no knowledge that he was even existed." She informed her. "I have brought an adult drone back and the Doctor is examining it, I will also analyze the data-node to see if I can find out any more information."

Kathryn nodded, "I want you to assist the Doctor, I need to check on a few things I will meet you in sickbay later."

Seven nodded and made her way out of the ready room.

Kathryn sighed and placed both hands on her face, she brought them down slowly before standing. She left to talk with Tuvok about trying to locate Harry.

-=/\=-

Kathryn informed Tuvok about what she and Seven had discussed; part way through their conversation the Doctor called them down to sickbay. They finished their conversation on the way. The last thing she told Tuvok to do before they entered sickbay was to try and get a hold of Harry, if he were still alive, he might be able to help them.

They both turned and entered sickbay the Doctor was waiting for them. "Behold the David that slew our Goliath."

She followed him to look at his readings, "A pathogen." She looked the Doctor in the eyes.

"A space born virus that adapted to Borg physiology. It's inert now, but in its virulent state it attacked the drones and killed them." He informed his commanding officer.

She looked over the information as Tuvok discussed the reasoning for why the children were not affected. Seven simply filled in that maturation chambers were designed to protect the developing drones.

Kathryn was deep in thought as she looked at the information before her and listened to the conversation going on, she heard Tuvok ask the Doctor a question, "Does this pathogen only target the Borg?"

"The Borg and other cybernetic organisms it encounters." Then realization hit him, he turned back to Tuvok. Kathryn only listened to the ensuing argument. The Doctor's voice in her left ear and Tuvok's in her right. "You're not thinking of using it as a biological weapon?" The Doctor stated a bit worried.

"If we can revive the pathogen and re-introduce it, we could neutralize the drones without harming the away team." Tuvok's said, from a tactical stand point his plan had merit.

Kathryn slowly moved her second hand onto the console overlooking the data finding that she needed something to support herself with; her mind was taking in everything they were saying. She looked up thinking as the Doctor's responded to Tuvok's words. "'Neutralize'? You mean 'murder', don't you?" His attention then turned from Tuvok to her, when she looked up at him slightly, but then back at the console "Captain, they're children."

Tuvok always seeming to be the voice of logical reason spoke next, "Need I remind you that these children have committed murder themselves in their futile attempts to assimilate others." It felt as if her own mental conflict about what to do with the Borg was being voiced outside her head, the battle between her scientific mind and moral conscious; Tuvok the voice of science, and the Doctor the voice of heart.

She needed more information before she could make any the decision to order them to create a pathogen or not, her gaze fell upon Seven. Looking at her she spoke, "Seven" she dropped her hands and turned and walked around the Doctor "tell me something. You saw them," she stopped in front of her and looked up into her face, "talked to them. Do you think they'll kill the hostages if we don't give them what they want?"

Seven looked towards the Doctor who was hoping that she'd say no, but she couldn't say that, looking Kathryn directly in the eyes she simply stated, "yes."

She leaned back slightly, she'd been hoping that seven would have said no, but she hadn't. This was not the news she wanted to hear. She turned back into the direction of the others, "I want that pathogen as an option, Doctor" The look on his face said everything, so she added more "but, I won't consider using it until I've seen these drones for myself." She looked at first towards the other side of sickbay then turned her head only slightly towards Seven, "Think you can arrange that?" The woman standing next to her gave her a slight nod, Kathryn had learned that, that look meant yes, "Then you're with me."

She waited only long enough for Seven to set what she'd been holding down, she made a hasty retreat not wanting to deal with the Doctor at the current moment.

-=/\=-

The meeting on the cube hadn't gone nearly as well as she'd hoped. Two hours, they now had two hours to figure out how they were going to save the away team. She had left Seven to try and help repair the damage to the Borg cube. She hoped that she'd come up with some way to stall them without looking as if that was what she was doing.

She entered the bridge and asked about the pathogen after informing Tuvok about the new time schedule. He said that it should be ready within the time frame they had. She didn't want to use it, but it appeared that there weren't too many other options at the moment. B'Elanna broke her train of thought. "Did you see the away team?"

"I'm afraid not, but Seven assured me our people haven't been harmed." She waved her left hand to help reassure B'Elanna, she wasn't the only one that had a loved one on that cube. She wished that she'd had a chance to see them. She missed Chakotay terribly, and was very sure that B'Elanna was feeling the same way about Tom.

She took her seat and studied the console that separated the two command chairs intently as B'Elanna spoke. "I can't believe we're negotiating with adolescent drones."

Kathryn was at a loss, she wasn't used to dealing with children. She spoke out what she was thinking "They're not exactly drones. Mature Borg are predictable. They'll ignore you or assimilate you, but these juveniles," she paused for a moment, and finally stated, "They're unstable."

Tuvok, once again had some profound wisdom on the subject, "They are contemptuous of authority, convinced that they are superior; typical adolescent behavior for any species."

The words he spoke may have been humors in a different situation, there wasn't time for Kathryn to make a response; the sound of B'Elanna's console rang though the bridge. "It's a transmission, from the cube."

Kathryn looked up, "Seven?" she inquired.

B'Elanna's mood lifted some as she responded to her inquiry, "No, it's Harry. I'm clearing it up now."

The sound of static filled the room until finally Harry's voice broke through, "Delta Flyer to Voyager, respond."

"We're receiving you, Ensign. Where are you?" Kathryn replied.

Harry's voice filled the room again, "Still in the Flyer. It's locked up in some kind of hangar bay, along with two alien ships."

Tuvok had been busy trying to figure out where Harry was on the cube, he looked up when he had something to tell the Captain, "I've isolated his coordinates."

An idea sprung into her mind, she quickly got up out of her chair and made her way towards Tuvok, "How close is he to their shield generator?" She placed her hand on the railing and turned back towards the front of the ship.

Tuvok responded "Roughly 800 meters."

She rested her right elbow on the railing and put her other hand on her hip her left leg was crossed around her right one and rested on the slight step under the railing as she spoke, "Harry, are there any plasma charges aboard the Flyer?"

Harry's disembodied voice spoke once more, "Yes, ma'am."

"In that case, how do you feel about going for a little walk?" she was looking up slightly since there was no one to look at.

She smiled slightly then dropped the expression when he responded with "I could use the exercise."

She nodded to no one in particular. "Tuvok will guide you to the shield generator. If you destroy it, you won't have to make the trip back."

Harry's voice said one last thing before the link closed, "Understood."

Once the link closed Kathryn placed her left hand onto the railing, she bent her hair relieved that it appeared she wouldn't have to give the order to kill five children. She took a deep breath then looked up at Tuvok letting him know to go to astrometrics to assist Harry with deploying the charges. She returned to her chair, her hand resting on her abdomen.

-=/\=-

Kathryn was looking out the viewport to her ready room, Seven had just left. Apparently the Borg had rejected the neo-natal drones but they were unaware that they had been rejected. After a long discussion, she decided that they would sit on the information that Seven had uncovered. She hoped that soon they would have five more crew members.

She took a sip of the tea that she'd replicated after Seven had left. She also nibbled at a salad that Neelix had brought to her. She really wasn't hungry but Neelix had insisted that she needed to eat something. He'd left it on her coffee table. She plopped down onto her couch, resting her hand on the back of it; her eyes peered out into the vastness of space. She wasn't able to see the cube from her ready room. She just hoped that their time wasn't going to run out.

-=/\=-

Tuvok called for the captain to come to him in astrometrics. She quickly made her way down there and was greeted outside of the room. Tuvok had news she didn't want to hear. They'd lost contact with Harry. She inquired as to how long, and was told that they'd lost contact with him five minutes prior to her arrival. She told him to keep looking for him after the Doctor called for her attention. She ducked into the turbo lift that she happened to be standing next to when he'd called for her to report to sickbay.

-=/\=-

Upon entering sickbay she asked, "What's the emergency?"

She walked up to the console but the Doctor moved away as he spoke, she followed him. "I thought you should see for yourself. Somebody left a bundle on our doorstep." She leaned down towards the incubator and the tiny baby girl that lay in it as the Doctor finished, "I turned around and there she was, lying on a bio-bed."

She placed her hands on the lower part of the incubator. She stared and the tiny wreathing baby in awe for a moment, her voice was soft and quiet so she didn't disturb the child. "Seven must've beamed her here."

The Doctor's voice was nearly a whisper too. "Good thing too" he paused briefly, "a few more minutes and I wouldn't have been able to do anything for her." The two of them leaned in closer to the infant. Kathryn's face changed from her normal down to business self to a soft caring expression. She could feel the sting in the back of her eyes, but forced herself to try and keep natural. She was thinking about how fragile and tiny the baby was, and about the one safely tucked away in her womb. She heard the Doctor finish, "It's hard to believe she could grow up to be a drone."

The Doctor had only just finished talking when the baby started crying. Her eyebrow twitched as she snapped out of her thought process, something deep inside her responding to the primal cry. She looked at the Doctor as he leaned in to pick the baby up. She looked back down as he lifted her higher. Suddenly the Doctor was leaning towards her saying something. Her eyes grew wide when he handed the baby too her. "Hold her for a moment while I take some readings." She knew what he was doing; he was trying to soften her up knowing full well about her condition. The worst part was it was working.

She reluctantly took the crying infant into her hands, her mouth opened slightly as if she were going to say something but she quickly closed it. Her gaze was fixed on the baby's face as she carefully moved it into a better position. A slight sideways smile played on her lips as she pulled the blanket away from the baby's face. She turned towards the Doctor so he could take some scans. He smiled slightly and simply said, "Ah, I guess she just wanted to be held."

She felt overwhelmed with emotion. She attempted to stay detached from the Borg children, but as she held the little girl in her arms her heart started to melt. The Doctor spoke again, "Oh," he reached over and grabbed something; she turned her attention from the baby in her arms to what the doctor was holding up. The effect the child was having on her was plan to see on her face when she looked at what he was holding, "the pathogen. I finished synthesizing it."

She looked up from the vile that the Doctor held out and turned her gaze for only a moment to the Doctor's eyes, "Start working with Tuvok on a way to deploy the virus." She looked away from the Doctor back the girl in her arms.

The Doctor couldn't believe what he'd heard, "Captain, you don't seriously plan to use it."

She looked back up to him very seriously, "If I have to." As if the baby understood what they were talking about she started to cry. Kathryn tuned away from the Doctor patting her back and whispered to her, "Let's just hope your brothers and sisters don't force my hand." She continued to stare into the face of the baby. She hoped greatly that they could find a way of resolving the situation without her having to kill the other five children.

She carefully lay the baby back down into the incubator and faced the Doctor once more. She looked him straight in the eyes letting him know that she knew what he was trying to do. She didn't want to use the weapon anymore then he did. She was going to say something more when she was summoned back to the bridge. The news wasn't good.

-=/\=-

She stood staring at the young man she'd been told was designated First. They'd found Harry and had injected him with nano probes, he would die if he didn't receive treatment, and they were refusing to send him over until they got what they wanted. The young drone looked at her and stated, "Comply."

She was giving the adolescent man one of her best glares, "Return Harry Kim, then we'll talk."

"We've talked enough. Your requests are irrelevant. Comply or we'll assimilate the others." The young man threatened. Kathryn looked back at Tuvok, he returned her gaze letting her know that she had his full support. She looked back to the view screen and tried to buy them more time. "It'll take us at least an hour to dismantle the deflector and transfer the components."

She was interrupted when First stated, "Now"

She was becoming more and more irritated at the young man's arrogance. "I can't give it to you now. It's complex technology that's part of our ship." She was accenting her syllables; something the entire crew understood was something she did only when she was furious. "We can't simply remove it and no amount of threats from you is going to change that."

The image of First disappeared and the Borg cube reappeared just moments before a green light emanated from the vessel. Voyager jolted and shook nearly knocking her off balance. Tuvok spoke after catching himself on his console. "They've locked a tractor beam onto the deflector."

Her gaze turned form the view screen to B'Elanna who began speaking as soon as Tuvok was done. "They're trying to tear it off. Hull stress is increasing, breaches on Decks ten and eleven." She rambled off as the readings displayed on her screen.

Turing towards her chair she spoke, "Increase shield strength and randomize the harmonics." She took her seat glaring at the incessant cube in front of her.

"They're adapting" he had to catch himself on the console once more as the ship jolted and bucked under the strain of the deflector being ripped from it.

Kathryn looked at the readings on her console as B'Elanna spoke. "Hull stress is reaching critical levels."

"Re-route all emergency power to structural integrity." She was gripping the arms of her chair.

"That'll buy us another minute at most." The woman at ops stated as she vigorously pressed buttons on the console.

Tuvok said something, "Captain, I have found a fluctuation in their shield grid near a plasma duct." She tuned to look at him, hoping that it meant they could get their people out of there. Unfortunately it wasn't the case. "It's too intermittent to beam out the hostages, but we could use it to deploy the pathogen." That wasn't what she wanted to hear; she looked back towards the ship then moved to start pressing buttons on her console. She didn't want to go there. The Doctor's little tactic was working. If there was a way that she could end this without killing those children she would do so. When she didn't respond right away Tuvok spoke again, "Captain?" he was trying to push her to make a decision.

"Not yet." She worked feverishly trying to figure out some other way.

Tuvok noted this and tried to prompt her again. "There is no alternative."

She was aware that everyone was staring at her, maybe she was too attached and letting her judgment be moved by the baby in sickbay, or the one inside her she didn't know. But, she couldn't give the order to kill children. "There's always an alternative. We just need to find it." B'Elanna looked at her, surprised by her reaction. The console Kathryn was working on beeped, she looked over the readings and she'd found what she was looking for. "Their tractor beam draws power from the same grid as their shield matrix."

She quickly stood and walked towards B'Elanna addressing her. "If we use the deflector to send a feedback pulse along the beam, it could disrupt their shields. She placed her hands on the railing looking the other woman right in the eyes. "Do it."

B'Elanna complied and as she pressed buttons she spoke. "Re-routing warp plasma, if this doesn't work it'll do more damage to us than the cube." She stated not liking the idea one bit.

"It'll work." She turned her attention away from the half Klingon; she stood in a wide stance looking at Tuvok and said, "Prepare to fire." He nodded.

She gave the order and the feedback pulse was sent out along the tractor beam. "Their tractor beam is fluctuating. Their shields are dropping."

"I've got a partial lock on the away team, boosting the confinement beam." Her jaw was tight as she worked. B'Elanna looked up, "I've got three of them."

Tuvok's station beeped several alerts, "Confirmed. Chakotay, Paris and Neelix are in Transporter Room Two."

She momentarily thanked whatever deity was out there that Chakotay was safe, but there were still two others left on that ship, "What about Seven and Harry?"

"They must be in a section that's still shielded." B'Elanna stated, she was trying to locate them.

"Amplify the feedback pulse." She put her hands on the forward railing of the bridge to brace herself for the jolt the pulse was about to cause. After only a short time longer the Borg shields were down. She breathed a sigh of relief. Seven contacted her letting her know that the children that had survived were willing to move to Voyager.

-=/\=-

Harry and the others were going to be fine, and so were the children that were rescued. She'd put seven in charge of them, even though she'd been reluctant to take on the responsibility of caring for the children. Kathryn felt that it was a good exercise for her to be in charge of caring for more than herself. It would also benefit the children from having her experiences learning to acclimate to life outside of the collective. A young couple that had been together for about three years and had found out that they would never be able to have a child of their own agreed to take the infant that they'd named Isabel.

Kathryn was pleased that for the most part things had worked out for the better. She now sat on the edge of her bed. She looked up when Chakotay walked into the room. "Hi," she said with only a slight smile.

He took a seat next to her and placed his hand on her knee. "I heard that things got a little hairy over here today." He joked.

She frowned and looked up at him, "I thought we were going to lose you and the others today." She finally stated.

He looked down he moved his hand from her knee to take her hand that lay on the bed into his. Her other hand was loosely sitting in her lap. He stroked the back of the one he held. "I know you were in a pretty bad spot, but I'm glad you searched for an alternative rather than killing them."

She looked into his eyes, "Not all of them made it," she noted, her eyes dropped once more. "And," she took a deep breath, "at first I seriously contemplated using the virus. Tuvok wanted me to."

"Why didn't you?" he asked.

She smiled slightly and looked at him, "Because, I'm human," is all she said.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

-=/\=-

"Oh damn" the words could be heard just outside of the Jefferies tube. B'Elanna poked her head up.

"Are you alright?" she asked concerned.

"I'm fine, B'Elanna." she called back; she sighed then admitted, "I think I might need some assistance." She'd been laying on her back trying to repair a damaged circuit for the last hour, and in her present state she was finding it do be very difficult to shift position into one that would allow her to exit the tube.

The engineering officer came to her rescue. She knelt over her slightly looking rather amused at the state she was in. Her hair was laying haphazardly across the floor, dirt on her face, and the somewhat noticeable bump on her midsection. "You do know that if the Doctor, Tuvok, or Chakotay find out that I let you in here, I'm going to be jettisoned out the nearest airlock right."

Kathryn smiled only for the briefest of moments, she then spoke, "then that is all the more reason for you to help me get out of here." She took the hand that was offered to her and let out a loud groan as she was pulled into a sitting position. She sat back against the wall willing the spasm that occurred in her lower back to pass.

B'Elanna sat back and looked her over, "you're going to be the death of me; you know that right?"

The two women had formed a close relationship over the last several weeks, since Kathryn had found out that she was expecting. "I think they'll understand, you just have to tell them that I ordered you to let me assist." She raised her eyebrow.

"That might work on Tuvok or the Doctor, but I don't think it will fly with Chakotay, He told me to call him if you tried to be," she paused for a moment, "too hands on."

Kathryn laughed and gathered up her tools. "Well, I'll have to have a little talk with him about giving orders that pertain to me without discussing them with me first."

B'Elanna took the kit Kathryn had brought with her from her to allow her a bit more freedom of movement. Kathryn paused when she reached the exit hatch. She looked back over her shoulder, "thanks, I'd go crazy if I couldn't help." She smiled.

B'Elanna just shook her head and encouraged her to exit the Jefferies tube before anyone of importance figured out she'd let her in there. She knew that Kathryn was very hands on, and well she was right she would have just ordered her to let her in there anyhow, the only person that could have stopped her was indeed, Chakotay. Kathryn carefully climbed down the stairs; she pushed open the hatch and stopped before exiting. She was staring Chakotay right in the eyes.

"Commander" she stated innocently.

He rolled his eyes, and reached out to assist her out of the service hatch. She at first attempted to exit herself, but finally gave in and reached her hand out. He helped her to her feet. "Didn't the Doctor tell you specifically not to be crawling through those and to take it easy?" he asked.

Kathryn's eyes were on the floor, "Relax Chakotay, I'm fine, I wasn't over doing it."

B'Elanna paused when she heard his voice. She took a deep breath and exited, "Don't go to red alert just yet, I was with her the entire time." She stated as she emerged from the access hatch.

The two women's eyes met, Kathryn sending her a look that said thank you before turning back to Chakotay, "I only went up one level and over two sections. I also do remember the Doctor telling me that I needed moderate activity."

She had him there, but he didn't like the idea of her crawling through the bawls of the ship in her current state. "Okay, but seriously you can't do everything that you're used to doing right now." He brushed some of her hair that was thoroughly disheveled behind her ear. "I worry about you."

She was truly touched by his show of compassion but she was merely pregnant, it didn't make her incapable of anything. "Chakotay," her voice was very calm, "I really do appreciate that, but I'm pregnant, that doesn't make me an invalid."

"I know that, but I also know that things lately haven't been that easy for you, I don't want anything that can be prevented, happing to you." He was referring to an episode she'd had three days before.

She sighed, "I had one fainting spell, and he wasn't even sure if it was because of the dilation of my blood vessels or the fact I'd skipped breakfast. Besides, I wasn't about to go in there alone." She stated pulling herself as tall as she could. She was feeling shorter these days because the style of boots she normally wore unfortunately made her ankles swell up to the point she looked like she had the feet of a Talaxian Elephant.

It was B'Elanna's turn to step in, "Chakotay look, if I thought that repairing a simple relay would be too strenuous on her, and I wouldn't have let her go in there. I also didn't let her go alone, I was with her the entire time." She pulled him aside leaving Kathryn to stare at their backs, "I think that you need to give her a bit more leeway, after all, she has already cut back on a lot of what she normally does, if you try to tell her she can't do much more, she's likely to start doing things just to spite you." Kathryn grinned she could over hear the conversation, and B'Elanna was only somewhat exaggerating. The three of them had become extremely over protective, more so the usual and she was starting to feel suffocated, and that she'd been the victim of an unspoken munity.

Unable to help herself she voiced her own opinion on the situation, "she's right you know." She stated walking over to them, "and, unless you've relieved me of my command all of the sudden, I am still the captain." She had her hands on her hips, which only accented the newly found roundness of her abdomen. "Now, I think we should all get something to eat, I'm starving."

All he could do was shake his head, perhaps he was being over protective of her, but he couldn't help being so. Not only was she one of the single most important people on the ship, she was his life. He couldn't stand to see anything happen to her. He looked to his right to see B'Elanna shaking her head, Kathryn was already to the doors; she turned back to the other two, "So are you coming?" Laughing the pair hurried to catch up to her as they made their way to the Mess Hall.

-=/\=-

An exaggerated sigh met his ears as he entered the main living area of her quarters. Though they'd been lovers now for a while she'd decided that even though he spent most nights in her quarters, it was a good idea to, at least for now to maintain their current living arrangements. Part of the reasoning was that in the near future she was going to need some extra space, and the plans for how to convert the current quarters were still in the mix. She'd been thinking of possibly seeing how feasible it would be to just simply knock down the dividing wall between hers and his quarters, and then reconfigure the two living spaces to meet the needs of a family. This had been something she'd never thought that she'd ever have to consider.

"What is it?" He asked rounding the rear of the chair she sat in.

She leaned her head back, "my feet are three times larger than they should be."

He smiled and knelt down; he helped her to remove the shoes that had begun to constrict her blood flow. She sighed as he took her left one into his hands. "Oh, that feels good." She closed her eyes as he worked on the first of the two.

"Perhaps you over did it a bit today?" he asked her as he used his knuckles on the arch of her foot. He saw her wince slightly so he softened his touch some.

"Look if this is about." She paused as she felt him lower the one foot and took the other into his strong hands. She swallowed still not opening her eyes, "The Jefferies tube, I'm sorry, I just need to be useful." She said. She sighed again as he worked his magic.

"I know" he said, he lay her foot back on to the floor and took each ankle into its own hands, rubbing them in a circular motion around the back of them.

She looked down at him, "I don't know if I can put up with another, twenty weeks of this." She shifted in her chair as her back let her know that it wasn't happy about the position. He'd stopped his ministrations on her feet and looked up at her. The wincing didn't go unnoticed.

"Let me guess, you're back bothering you?" he stood as she nodded. "Let's go lay down, I can give you a massage maybe it'll help you sleep." He held out his hands to help her into a standing position. She gladly accepted his invitation. She not only was exhausted but it felt like Voyager itself was sitting on her back.

She lay on her left side as he began to rub her lower back, at first it was almost painful as he worked the knots but soon she found the sensation to be very relaxing. She closed her eyes to relax enjoying the feeling.

After about ten minutes his motions stopped. He smiled when he realized that she'd fallen asleep. This was his ultimate goal. He watched her sleeping; she wasn't one for being complacent even when she was supposed to be. She still wasn't eating right, sleeping right, or well doing anything the Doctor told her to do. He smiled to himself thinking that she'd probably be in the middle of labor issuing out orders if the need arose. After some time he decided that he should sleep too. He climbed into bed next to her and made sure they were both covered before he settled down for the night. He called for the lights to be dimmed and closed his eyes. He was soon in a deep sleep as well.

-=/\=-

"What is it Harry?" she asked as she strode out of the turbo lift. She'd been eating in the Mess Hall when she was summoned to come to the bridge.

"I'm picking up a planet on long range sensors," He stated as he moved back to his post.

She moved to her seat and took it; "On screen" she heard the lift doors open, seconds later Chakotay was sitting next to her. She didn't look at him only looked towards the planet displayed on the screen.

Harry continued to speak. "The planet is M Class and appears to be rich in dilithium as well as other raw materials. There are three moons that surround it, one is also M Class and appears to have some rather unique geological formations, but doesn't seem to have much of anything else to offer."

She thought about his words for a second. "Is there any evidence of intelligent life on either the planet or the moon?" she questioned.

Tuvok stated, "It appears that there may have been an ancient civilization, however there is no evidence that the planet or moon is currently inhabited. I am also not picking up any signs of intelligent life in the next three star systems."

"Very good, set a course" she leaned back in her chair thinking about the moon. There might not be anything they needed on it, but there could be something useful to some of the members of Voyager. "As we get closer I would like detailed scans done of both the planet and the moon. I'll be in my ready room. Commander you have the bridge." She made her way to the ready room only after she'd received conformation that her orders were understood.

-=/\=-

They were in orbit of the fourth planet in a binary system. Kathryn had wanted to be notified as soon as they entered orbit, and had requested scans done of both the planet and the moon. He was a bit curious as to why she'd wanted scans done of the moon as well, since they'd determined that there wasn't anything useful on it.

He pressed the chime and waited to be allowed admittance. It wasn't long. He walked in and looked around a bit puzzled, he didn't see her at first but then looked over by the couch. He was by her side in a second. She laughed at his sudden worry. "I'm fine; I'm down here because it was more comfortable." She was sitting with her back against the edge of the couch, her butt on the floor and her legs stretched out in front of her with a pillow under them. "The chair is too straight and the back of the couch pushes in just the wrong spot. The only problem with down here is, it's harder to get up from." She laughed.

She could only see how bad things were going to get for her as she became larger. She was still only about half the size she would have been expected to have been at this point in the pregnancy. But, the Doctor had assured her that the baby was growing nicely. He laughed and looked down, as she attempted to pull herself into a standing position. He waited for a moment to let her try and get up on her own. He'd taken some of the things B'Elanna had said to heart. He realized that he was being more overprotective then he needed to be, she knew her limits.

After a few moments of trying to stand on her own she finally looked up and held her hand up to him. He took a hold of it and helped lift her off the ground. She was still very light and he had no problem lifting her. "Thanks" she smiled and straightened her uniform. She'd chosen to wear an over jacket to help hide her growing belly. She figured from a tactical standpoint, if they were to run into an unfriendly species it might be best, if they weren't instantly aware of her current condition. They could see it as a potential weakness.

He just smiled and handed her the data padd he had. "The scans you requested."

She took what he held out to her and made her way to the replicator reading it. She pressed a few buttons and two teas appeared. She'd become used to only drinking a couple of cups of coffee during the day, that was all the Doctor was going to get from her. She first handed him one of the cups then took hers and she made her way to her desk but didn't sit down in the chair. She took a seat on the edge of the desk, she looked over the information he'd given her as she took a sip of her tea.

She liked what she was reading; for the most part the moon had a moderate climate. No significant geological activity, lots of interesting natural formations, and a wide verity of plant life. True their airponics bay was doing well, but it never hurt to try and find more verity for their diets. The planet also looked to be a rather safe place for mining. They wouldn't have to go out in environmental suites which would make things far easier on the away team.

He took note of the smile that had formed on her lips. "I take it you like what you're seeing?" he asked. He'd walked over to where she was sitting. He would have taken the chair that usually sat in front of her desk, but she'd placed her feet into it. He decided her comfort was more important at the moment then his own.

She looked up and nodded. "I very much like what I'm seeing." She placed the cup down and pressed a few buttons to read more. She looked up with an almost childlike expression, "Have the senior staff assemble in the briefing room in thirty minutes. I would also like Neelix, and Samantha to be there as well."

He nodded, "anything in particular you're thinking about?" he asked, he knew that look too well.

"You'll see in the meeting" she simply stated, and nodded the he could go; she had a few things to figure out before she informed the crew as to her plans.

-=/\=-

The senior staff along with Neelix and Sam were all sitting around the briefing table talking amongst themselves. They were all curious as to what the captain had planned and why she'd specifically asked for the other two to join them. They quieted down as Kathryn walked into the room. She smiled and greeted all of them.

She paused briefly when she reached the head of the table. There was something different about her chair, she turned back around and lifted her eyebrow. She tried to figure out who'd replaced it. Deciding that it was either Chakotay or the Doctor that had come up with the idea she took the seat. It was far more comfortable than the other one, and it reclined slightly. After taking only a second to enjoy the newfound comfort of the chair, she addressed the group. "Welcome," she started, "as you know we're in orbit of the planet, and I would like to see about getting some of the materials that we need." She turned her attention to her half Klingon engineer. "B'Elanna I would like you to assemble an away team for mining the dilithium, get as much as we can carry, we never know when we're going to come across a source like this again. Harry, Tom I want you to assist with the mining process. Chakotay, you are the leader of away team alpha"

The all nodded, and she took a moment to allow them to process everything, she then turned to address Sam, Neelix, and Seven. "I was looking at the scans of the moon, and I think that it might be a good opportunity for the children to get some hands on experience off the ship." She paused for a second, "I believe that the moon is very safe, and has a lot unique formations, it would be a wonderful opportunity for furthering their education about the universe around them." She stopped and let them process what she'd said. She waited for a response.

Samantha smiled, "I think that it's a wonderful idea. I know Naomi has been asking if she could go off the ship almost anytime we come to a planet. Usually I tell her that it might not be safe for her to do so, especially when we're dealing with new species."

Neelix was also excited by this, "I took notice that there is a lot of plant life too, it would be a good opportunity for them to learn about finding editable plants and basic survival skills."

Kathryn's smile was getting larger and larger by how the caregivers of the children were taking her idea. They seemed to be thrilled with the idea. She turned to Seven who was quiet. "Seven what do you think?"

Seven was a bit dubious, she wasn't sure if the children would be mature enough to handle the experience. "I'm not sure if the Borg children are ready, they tend to disobey often, and I'm not sure if they'd conduct themselves in a mature manner."

She looked down for a moment trying to suppress a laugh by the Borg's reluctance. It wouldn't be good if the Captain started laughing at her crew, "Seven, I understand that you don't think they could handle themselves, but they can't learn how to conduct themselves in different situations unless they are exposed to them." She noted.

Seven looked down, thinking on her words, then once again in a reluctant tone spoke, "however, there is a chance for significant scientific exploration, and" she continued trying to sound as if she hadn't just been told off, "it may be good for them to learn to adapt to new environments."

Everyone was smiling at the fact that Seven could never admit that she was wrong. Kathryn then spoke, "Very good, Seven, Neelix, and Sam of course you're going to be on the away team destined for the moon, I would never dream of asking you to have the children go without you, unless you felt they would be alright." She smiled. She was going to speak more but Chakotay asked her a question.

"So who's going to lead the away team with the children?" he had a bad feeling he already knew the answer by the way she was somewhat dancing around the subject. If it had been Tuvok she would have just already outright and said it, and there really weren't too many other's that she'd be able to have as the leader. She also had left it open that Seven wasn't the head of the team.

"I will be leading the away team." She simply stated and braced herself as she knew that there were about to be three people all trying to talk to her at the same time.

She was right all three men were speaking at the same time, the words, "absolutely not" "is it wise," "you're not going down there" where all jumbled together.

The rest of the individuals in the room just kind of looked down towards their hands as the three men argued over whether or not Kathryn should go down to the moon. She lifted her hand up to try and silence them, but they continued talk. Finally having enough of it she raised her voice over them. "That's enough" her words pierced through the room and everyone that had been talking ceased. They looked taken aback for a moment, and Tuvok raised his eyebrow.

She stood and placed her hands on the edge of the table. "I have made my decision; I will be the one leading the away team with the children. It's a good opportunity for me to get to know them, all of them." She looked around the room. "Also," she turned her attention first to Tuvok, then to the Doctor and finally to Chakotay as she spoke the next words. "If I didn't think the moon was safe enough for me." She then turned her attention to the three caregivers, "I most certainly wouldn't be letting Voyager's children go." She let the words hang for a moment. "Now if there is nothing else, this meeting is over, Chakotay, I want you to meet up with your team, Beta team." She looked at Sam, Neelix, and Seven, "we will have our meeting in three hours, Dismissed."

Everyone nodded and got up to leave. They one by one filed out of the room, all except for Tuvok, Chakotay, and the Doctor. She sighed and sank back into the chair. "I appreciate your concern gentlemen, but like I have already said, I have made my decision. I doubt a little fresh air, and moderate exercise is going to harm me or the baby." She stated eyeing the Doctor; she was using some of his words against him. Tuvok moved forward to speak and she raised her hand to silence him, "now if there is nothing else, you're all three dismissed." She stated again this time far more mincingly, she'd had enough of them treating her like she was dying.

Tuvok raised his eyebrow but turned and left, the Doctor opened his mouth as if he was going to say something but she looked up at him with a glare. He closed his mouth and too left, that just left Chakotay. She knew that he wasn't going to be nearly as easy to get rid of. She sighed and leaned back in the chair with her hand on her forehead. This whole thing was driving her crazy. She heard him walk close to her. "Chakotay, I know what you're going to say."

"Alright then what am I going to say." He decided to try a different tactic rather than directly opposing her, since that hadn't been working to well.

"You're going to say that it's too dangerous, what if our scans aren't accurate. There are always unknown dangers, what if there's virus or something down there that I could come down with, and that you're concerned for the safety of the baby as well as me." She moved to look him in the eyes; her eyebrows were raised as if to challenge him to say that wasn't what he was thinking. "I understand that you are worried about us, but like I already said, if I didn't think the environment was safe for me to go, there is no way that I would send the children." She leaned forward and took his hands, "besides, I need to get off the ship for a little while. The exercise will be good for me and it'll give me something to do aside from just sit around issuing orders. You can't simply lock me in a bubble."

He smiled slightly at her last words, "I can't?"

She shook her head, "No, we don't know what each day will bring. Just because we're in a relationship, and I am going to have a child, doesn't mean that there isn't the chance that we could be attacked and boarded by an unknown species. I also can't have you opposing me openly every time I make a decision that has even the most minimal amount of risk."

He looked down, unfortunately up until now he'd been letting her take far more risks then she was taking now. Why was it that suddenly the thought of her doing anything that could put her in the smallest amount of danger sent him on red alert? Was it simply because she was pregnant, or was it because he was involved with her, he sighed then looked up at her, "alright you're right."

She smiled momentarily at his admission. "I'm glad we understand each other." She reached up and traced his tattoo; she stood on her tip toes and placed a quick soft kiss on his lips. Stepping back she sent him a sideways smile, "now if you won't excuse me, I have an over protective security officer, and physician to talk some since into."

He grinned she wouldn't quite use the same tactics as she used on him on them. He wondered how well things were going to work out with the other two.

-=/\=-

She was sitting in her arm chair with her feet up on her couch. Thankfully she managed to talk since into all three men, and the meeting with her away team went very smoothly. They'd decided to start on the northern most continent. There were some lovely water and rock formations that she thought the children would really enjoy. It also wasn't too far from what appeared to be an ancient village. She thought the opportunity for some anthropological study was perfect.

She looked up when Chakotay walked into her quarters. "Hello, how'd your meeting go?" she asked looking up from her padd.

"It went well, we're going to leave at 0800 tomorrow, B'Elanna wants an early start." He stated taking his seat across from her on the couch. She was sitting in her arm chair, she' found that out of all her furniture it was the most comfortable for the longest period of time.

She smiled, "We're leaving at 0930, Sam thought it'd be a good idea to let the children rest a bit longer so that they didn't become too cranky." She grinned.

"That does sound like a good idea." He leaned back and looked at her admiring how beautiful she looked. She'd already changed for the evening, and she sat in a beautiful light blue satin night gown, that accented the baby. "No one needs a cranky crew" he laughed.

She sighed as she shifted position; she was hoping that the baby would soon fall asleep, as of late she was becoming very energetic. "Well they may get a cranky captain if I can't sleep tonight." She laughed, and as if the baby had understood what she'd said she felt the sensation of being kicked in the ribs. She gasped slightly. He looked up into her face concerned, he was about ready to stand up and go to her when she laughed. "Think the doctor could give her a sedative?" she stated pointing at the bulge in her lower abdomen.

He laughed and decided to get up; he knelt down in front of her, and with awe placed his hand down onto her belly. She closed her eyes at his closeness; he'd wrapped his other arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him. He didn't have to wait long and soon the baby was letting him know she wasn't too happy about his hand being there. He laughed, and looked into her face. Upon feeling his gaze she opened her eyes. He looked into hers his love shining though. "That's amazing" he whispered.

She nodded, and smiled. She reached her head up and he noticing took her lips into his, nibbling her lower one slightly. After they broke apart she laid her head on his shoulder looking down at his hand. She placed hers on top of it and they both sat there enjoying the feeling of the child growing inside her.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

-=/\=-

It was beautiful, the warmth of the two suns shown beautifully down upon the idyllic scene. The sound of the children exploring and rang though the forest, some of the creatures were heard hooting and calling, obviously unused to the sounds of people. The adults were standing at the top of a hill letting the children run off a bit of energy from breakfast. Sure this was going to be an educational trip, but there was plenty of time for fun.

They'd also just gotten done with a flight lesson. Kathryn had decided that it would be fun to give them the experience of flying a shuttle to their destination. Each child with the exception of Ichib was sitting next or in an adults lap as they learned to pilot the Delta Flyer. Kathryn had Mezoti, Seven had Azan, Neelix had Rebi, and of course Samantha had Naomi. Ichib was old enough to handle himself. They took about an hour long flight intentionally having them take a much longer rout to their landing spot to give them more time in the Flyer. All the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Despite the fact the children were running around, Kathryn and the rest of the adults needed to get some work done. She looked up and over to Seven and Sam who were taking a few scans of the rocks. "We'll call the children back in about five minutes; let's make sure we have something to show them."

The continued to search the area for anything that would be of particular interest to the young away team; Samantha looked up as she saw Naomi running towards here. "Mom, Captain, you have to come and see what we've found." Her eyes were wide with excitement.

The four adults looked up from what they were doing towards where the child had come from. They could see the rest of the group looking at something rather intently. They hadn't really found anything in the area they were searching at so Kathryn decided to investigate what they'd discovered. She pushed herself back into a standing position. Her legs let her know they weren't too happy about kneeling. "Alright Ms. Wildman, lead the way." She stated.

Naomi smiled broadly and took her mother's hand. "This way" she turned and started back down the hill. Kathryn was right behind them followed by Neelix and then Seven taking up the rear.

The group made their way down the hill passing several interesting rock formations. They entered a clearing where the other children were waiting. They were standing in front of an outcropping of rocks. Kathryn was somewhat excited as she turned the corner. It was fun to see the children discovering things; it helped to remind her of why she'd joined Starfleet in the first place. "We think it's an ancient camp site" Ichib informed.

"Really?" Kathryn stated as she rounded the last rock. She froze in her steps. It was indeed a camp site, but it wasn't ancient. She grabbed her tricorder out instantaneously upon realizing that it was fresh. There wasn't any smoke emanation from the fire pit but it was obvious that it was only hours old. "Sam, Neelix, gather the children together, Seven" she stated motioning for her to come closer to her.

Naomi looked up concerned as her mom pulled her closer to the other children. "Captain, what's wrong?" she questioned.

Kathryn didn't give the child a response she merely scanned the area trying to see if she could detect any other life forms aside from the away team. "Seven, this camp site is only hours old, we're not alone on this moon." Her voice was a whisper she didn't want to scare the kids.

Samantha and Neelix had noticed how fresh the camp site was as well. The four adults surrounded the group of children in a similar manner that many animal species would. Seven had taken out her tricorder and her phaser, along with Kathryn. Sam had her tricorder out and Neelix his phaser. Naomi asked again, "what's going on?" she was getting scared.

Sam soothed her, "it's okay; just we're not sure if we're the only ones here right now baby."

Her forehead wrinkled accenting her spikes. "I thought you said there wasn't anyone here, they were all gone."

"That's what the sensors indicated," Kathryn stated back, she was leading the rear, "we should get back to the Flyer." She finally said it appeared that whoever had been there wasn't there anymore thankfully.

Seven took the lead, Sam and Neelix were flanking either side, and Kathryn took the rear of the children, if anything were to happen then she wanted to make sure that they were protecting the children best they could. They were about halfway up the hill to their landing spot when a shrill whistle rang through the air; they all stopped and looked up "get down!" Kathryn called out just as a bright white light filled the sky.

-=/\=-

The mining expedition was going very well. They'd found a very large vain of ore about ten meters under the crust of the planet. B'Elanna had already set up the mining operation and they were quickly gathering up the raw materials. There was a second team gathering up some of the other materials that they needed.

Tom and he were joking about how hard it was to deal with woman sometimes when his combadge chirped, "Tuvok to Commander Chakotay."

"Chakotay here, what is it Tuvok?" he asked a bit worried.

"Commander, the Captain has failed to report in at her scheduled time." His voice calmly relayed to his commanding officer.

Tom and Chakotay locked eyes, "I'm on my way up" He stated, "Tom, I want you to take charge down here, and keep an open comm. be ready to get out of here at a moment's notice got it?" Tom nodded "Alright Tuvok, one to beam up."

Tom watched as Chakotay disappeared, he went to let Harry, and B'Elanna know what was going on.

-=/\=-

He was on the bridge in a matter of a few minutes after being transported back. "When was their last transmission?" he asked, trying to get a judge of how long they might have been missing.

"The captain reported landing successfully three hours and five minutes ago." Tuvok replied.

"Have you tired hail them?" he knew that he'd probably already done so; Tuvok was one to follow protocol to the tee.

"Yes, and there was no response, I have also scanned the surface of the moon, but I am unable to locate either the shuttle, or the away team." He stated reading over his console.

His heart was racing in his chest, what could have happened to them, and why were they not able to find them on sensors. "Try running a thermal sweep, perhaps we can locate their body heat." He stated.

"I already have, it was unsuccessful" he reported.

This was exactly what he feared when she'd decided to lead the away team. Why hadn't he listened to his gut, "are there any other vessels in the vicinity?" he asked.

"None on sensors," Tuvok stated again.

"Could they be cloaked?" something happened to them and he wanted to know what before he risked sending a search party.

"I am not detecting the typical displacements that would be created by a cloaked vessel, but that doesn't negate the possibility." The way he was calmly stating things was getting on his nerves. He wasn't upset in the least it seemed about the fact that the captain, and three officers and all the children on the ship were missing.

"Recall the other away team, we need to find out what happened to the other away team before we risk losing anyone else." He stated as he placed his hands on the railing that separated the upper most level of the bridge from where the command seats were. He starred at the screen where the moon was being displayed. 'Where are you Kathryn' he thought to himself.

-=/\=-

The feeling of someone touching her woke her up; she quickly opened her eyes and turned her head. The position she was laying in was incredibly uncomfortable. She was almost on her stomach and her head was resting on what felt like several moderately sized rocks. She shifted position and focused on who was touching her. "Neelix" she said groggily. She moved her head slightly trying to clear the foggy feeling, "what happened." She attempted to sit up, but she'd obviously been in the position she had been laying in for at least a little while. "Ah" she cried out as her back seized.

Neelix grabbed her by the shoulders, "Captain, are you alright?" he asked concern growing.

She took a deep breath and tired shifting again. "Yeah, just stiff." She moved into a sitting position and noticed Naomi lying next to her unconscious. "Naomi" she stated quickly, forgetting about herself she crawled over to the child and placed her fingers on her neck. She released her breath when she felt a pulse.

Neelix noticed, "as far as I know they're just sleeping."

Just then the sound of the other's starting to wake up filled the room, or cavern, cell, wherever they were. She looked around, they were obviously underground, and there was a man made barrier closing the entrance to where they were. "Captain?" Seven stated as she pulled herself up off the ground.

"I'm not sure where we are." Kathryn and managed to pull herself into a standing position and walked over towards where Azan and Mezoti were. The children had too stood and were looking around. Kathryn knelt down and placed her hand on the side of the girls face and her other on her shoulder, "are you alright?" she wanted to make sure they were uninjured.

She smiled slightly at the girl stated in a very Borg like manner, "I am undamaged."

Kathryn placed the hand that had been on the girls face on the shoulder of Azan who nodded in agreement that he too was uninjured. She made eye contact with the other boys who too nodded. She sighed and stood back up looking around. Samantha had woken up and was at her daughter's side. Kathryn went to her. "It doesn't appear that anyone else is injured, she's probably just sleeping."

Sam nodded, and pulled her child into her lap. "Where are we?" she asked looking around.

"I'm not sure." She took note that Naomi was shivering. The child wasn't used to being in a cold clement; life on Voyager was constantly controlled. It had been comfortable on the surface but underground it was far colder and she wasn't exactly dressed for cold weather. The other children seemed to be fairing alright, probably due to their Borg enhancements. Kathryn took her outer jacket off and placed it over the still sleeping girl. "Keep her warm," she told Samantha who nodded.

She stood up to survey their surroundings; her gaze fell on Mezoti who was just about to the edge of the barrier. Realizing what was about to happen she moved fast, and grabbed the girls arm. "Mezoti come away from there." She said, the child looked a bit surprised at suddenly being grabbed. She turned her around to look her in the face, "we never touch anything until we've examined everything." She stated.

She turned her back around to look at the barrier, she pointed to something. "See that right there?" she asked the child. She nodded, "that is an energy wire, I would suspect that this barrier is protected by a force filed as well." As if to demonstrate she picked up a rock that was sitting next to her and tossed it towards the cage like frame work. Sure enough it bounced back with a zap. The child jumped. Seven had moved forward and took the child by the shoulder leading back to where the other children were.

Once again Kathryn stood, she was examining where the barrier was placed into the wall when the sound of someone coming into the room interrupted her thoughts. She fixed her gaze on the strange looking man. He had two ridges down his nose, and some on his chin. His hair was cut into an almost Mohawk. He spoke before she had a chance to, "who are you, and why have you violated our moon?" he asked.

She moved towards the front of the cell they were in, "I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Star Ship Voyager; we were unaware that this moon was inhabited. Our sensors didn't indicate any recent habitation." She stated, "We were merely taking our children on a field trip." She stated eyeing the man closely to judge his response.

He looked over her shoulder to the five children. "You're children are Borg." He stated eyeing her.

"Were Borg, we rescued them from the collective." She stated, her hands were on her hips and she was trying to stand as tall as she could.

He took a step back and looked over the woman in front of him. She figured he was trying to size her up and determine if she were truly telling the truth or not. His gaze started at the top of her head and slowly moved down her body. He stopped looking at her abdomen suspiciously. "What kind of people can free individuals from the Borg and not become assimilated themselves?"

"We're resourceful" she simply stated.

His eyes hadn't left her abdomen, and she was becoming agitated. What was he just staring at her like that, had he never seen a pregnant woman before. She moved her arms from her hips and crossed them in front of her body in a protective stance. She heard him say something to someone that was standing just out of sight. His expression changed slightly as he looked back up to her face, "your baby has it moved since you woke up?" he'd also noticed that one of the other children hadn't awoke yet.

Her eyes were set in a slight glare, "No, she hasn't." she'd thought about the fact that she hadn't been feeling any movement, she was concerned but since she was in no pain figured that maybe whatever they'd used on her had caused her to be sleeping like Naomi was now.

The formally unseen man returned and handed him something. The man that had been talking noticed the intent look she gave the device. "It's a scanner, I wish to make sure we didn't harm the baby, we were unaware when we used our Neural Suppressor on you that you were with child." He stepped forward and pressed a button which she realized deactivated the force field. He noticed that she was eying him, "please captain, we do not wish to harm you."

"Then why are you detaining us?" she asked.

"We're not very trusting of other species, after the Borg destroyed our world many generations ago; we have gone though great length's not to be found. If we have please let me make sure we haven't harmed your child." He was speaking far more softly then he'd done when he'd first arrived.

She nodded he was about to scan her when Seven moved forward, "Captain."

Kathryn looked over her shoulder to stop her, and turned back towards the man. She'd had a chance to look over the device and was fairly certain that it wasn't a weapon. She nodded her head only slightly to let him know that he could proceed. She was concerned by the fact that her normally very energetic child wasn't moving at all.

All of the other's stood watching, they were hoping that she was making the right decision by letting them scan her. Though it wasn't like they could do much other then watch, they breathed a sigh of relief when it appeared that it was indeed only a scanning device and not some kind of weapon.

The man scanned her and looked up his eyes wide. "Captain, how was your child conceived?"

Her eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed. "I don't see that as any of your business, Mr?" she didn't know what to address him as.

"Dillarin," he filled in, he looked at her in the eyes. "Was this child conceived divinely?" he prompted.

She wasn't sure how she should respond to this inquiry, how much information should she provide her captor. Her attention was broke for a moment when she heard movement from behind her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Naomi had begun to stir. The sound of the bars made her attention go from the waking child to the man in front of her, he made no attempt to move towards her only lifted the barrier. He prompted her again. "Captain, it's important, I need to know how your child was conceived, was it without intercourse." He questioned her once more.

She placed her hands on her hips again, "not that it is any of your business, but you could say that, and I would also like to know if that thing you used on us harmed her in any way." She sent him one of the best glares she had.

The man took a step back almost as if he'd been shot. "Please forgive us, and your baby is unharmed, she should be awaking soon."

And, almost as if on cue her felt the familiar fluttering in her abdomen. She sighed at the sensation and realization that her child was fine. She heard the man that had brought the scanner to him say something, as if very surprised that he'd left the barrier open. He looked back at him, "you don't understand, it's no accident they're here, she's a Motic" he stated as he lowered himself to the ground kneeling on one knee. The other man's eyes grew wide and he too took a submissive stance kneeling on the ground at her feet.

Kathryn was shocked by this reaction and turned to look behind her. The others were all staring not sure what was going on. Kathryn turned back around and bent down on her hunches to look at the two men, "Motic, what does that mean?" she asked at a loss.

"Oh please forgive us great mother, we didn't know." Dillarin stated, "Can you ever forgive us for holding you captive."

She reached her hand out and touched the man on the shoulder, he looked up and into her eyes; she searched his for the reason that her captures had suddenly changed from being dominating to being highly intimidated by her presence. Then the realization hit her, they knew about the Borg, and when they'd scanned the baby is when things started to change. This was the species Seven had been talking about, species 99374.

-=/\=-

Chakotay was pacing back and forth on the bridge, he'd made several trips to the upper most and lower most decks of the bridge. It'd been five hours since they'd last had contact with Kathryn and her team, and they were no closer to formulating an explanation then they'd been when they'd first realized that there was a problem.

The other away team had successfully been recalled, and he was about to make his tenth trip around the bridge when Harry's console beeped. "Commander I'm receiving a transmission." He sated hopeful.

"On Screen" he stated, he stated and turned to face the screen. He breathed a sigh of relief when Kathryn's face appeared.

"Commander, we're alright." She started, "we ran into a few friends" she stated not sure exactly how to word it.

"Captain?" he questioned.

"We're on our way back to the ship right now, when we get there I'll meet you in sickbay, the entire away team needs to be checked out. We all appear to be fine, but I just want to make sure. I'll explain everything when I get there. Janeway out." The link closed leaving everyone on the bridge to look around confused.

-=/\=-

"I'm not sure exactly what was used on us, but it knocked everyone of unconscious including the baby." She said as she pulled herself up onto a biobed. Tom had made his way down to sickbay figuring that the Doctor could use the extra set of hands. The captain was the first one to be examined.

Chakotay stood close to the wall with his arms crossed watching them get taken care of. After she was examined then he'd talk but not until after. He watched as the Doctor closed his tricorder, "well aside from the fact you should probably eat something you're not worse off than if you were to have had a good night's sleep. Whatever it was did no permanent damage, merely sedated you."

This was good news. She nodded and let him go and check out the rest of them. She turned to see Chakotay. She smiled slightly knowing full well that she was never going to live this mission down. After The Doctor moved away he walked up to her, "what the hell happened down there?"

She laughed slightly, "You're not going to believe it." She stated she could hardly believe it herself.

"Try me" he challenged.

"During lunch, I'm starving." She stated, the doctor had a point she did need to eat something. She also knew that she was going to have a hard to explaining that the people that apparently lived on a planet in the system now believed that she was the mother of a child given by their deity.

-=/\=-

After everyone was checked out, and after Kathryn had a chance to get something she called a staff meeting. "Alright, we have some new friends." She stated, "Mr. Tuvok I will provide you with the cloaking frequency that I have been provided. They call themselves the Korodian Order."

She looked around to see that everyone was on the same page so far and then continued. "They have developed suffocated cloaking technology and live below ground to help avoid detection. They're original home world was destroyed by the Borg." She leaned back in her chair.

"Why did the capture you?" Chakotay asked.

"They thought that they'd been compromised and were trying to prevent the Borg from being able to locate them, after all most of the individuals on my team were drones at one point." She crossed her arms across her chest. "They have requested that we join them at their new home world, it's the second planet in this system. They are also willing to let us take as many of the resources from this planet as we need."

Tuvok looked at her, "for a species that was just paranoid about your arrival, they are being extremely generous, I can't help but suspect that there is more than meets the eye about them."

Chakotay smiled, "Well Captain Janeway is a skilled and competent negotiator."

Kathryn smiled towards Chakotay, "that may be true commander, but in this case Mr. Tuvok is correct, they are being so generous because they believe me to be a holy mother." She let the idea hang out there for a moment. "You remember when Seven spoke of species 99374?"

She looked around and they nodded, "well we have found them."

Tom spoke up, "so what exactly does that mean for you, and us?"

"Well from what I understand, this event of someone being impregnated by the Morlif, that's what they call the being that altered my DNA hasn't happened here in about seven generations. They consider any child and mother of a child conceived this way to be Holy, they called me a Motic which means holy mother. They wish to honor me." She looked around, "they also are willing to provide for any needs that I or my people may have."

In some ways this was wonderful news, but at the same time it just felt off, what would they do if they decided for some reason that she was a false deity? What exactly was meant by honor her, and were they really willing to provide anything that she or her people needed. "I told them that I would contact them first thing tomorrow, Tuvok under the circumstances I would like to rely on you to take any measures to make sure this crew, ship, and myself are safe during whatever ceremony they wish to perform to honor me. I would also like, under the circumstances take precautions just in case this all turns out to be a trick."

He nodded in response to her. He would do any and everything in his power to keep the captain and the crew safe. "Of course Captain." He stated.

She looked around, "I wish to suspend mining until after we know more about these people; I don't wish to have a crew down on that planet unless I know for sure that they're going to be safe. If there's nothing else you're dismissed."

Everyone left the room with the exception of the one she knew wouldn't leave. She leaned back in her chair and turned to face him. He grinned, "holy mother huh"

She tilted her head to the side slightly. "Apparently so" she laughed, "that is most certainly not a title I would have thought for myself, Hello, I am Captain Kathryn Janeway Holy Mother of the Federation Star Ship Voyager."

"Sounds impressive" he grinned back.

"Seriously, it was just a random non-corporeal species that infused itself into my DNA, not some supernatural being." She was swaying the seat back and forth slightly.

He placed his hand on to the one she'd had sitting on the table still. "That may be so, but to these people that non-corporeal life from is their deity, and it is a wonderful and great honor to have a gift such as yours bestowed upon you."

She looked down and placed her hand on the child that seemed to be dancing in her womb at the idea of being holy. He could tell what she was thinking, she was never one to be spiritual; her mind always had to have an explanation for every aspect of her life.

He grinned, "Well anyway at least if they believe that you are a holy mother, and this child was divinely given to you, we might as well use it to our advantage and get some of the things that we need." He stroked the back of her hand, "besides after we leave this region of space it's not like we're ever going to see them again."

She looked up and smiled to him. "You're right" she stood and offered her hand out for him to take. "I think I'm ready to turn in for the day, it's been rather eventful."

He escorted her back to her quarters. Once they were inside she made it clear rather quickly that she hadn't meant sleep right away. The rest of the crew had already started preparing for their meeting the next day, and she'd gotten everything caught up and ready before she even held the meeting. There was nothing to do until the next day. Once they were safely in her quarters she reached up and encircled his neck kissing him deeply.

When they broke apart he smiled, "I thought you said you were tired?"

She grinned back at him, "I am, but I also think I need to relieve some tension, today after all was very stressful." She stated seductively. She reached down and took him by the hand again and led him to her bed. "That is unless you're too tired." She challenged him.

"Not a chance." He claimed her mouth and pulled her with him onto the bed. "I'm never too tired for this."

"I'm glad" was the last thing she said before she captured his mouth one more time.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

-=/\=-

"Come on work damn it" the sound of one very angry Kathryn filled though the room. She peered over her stomach for a moment at B'Elanna who was working on the warp core. "I can't get it." She sighed heavily in frustration. She tried several more techniques and then said, "Wait, I think I've got it now." She realigned a circuit and the lights in engineering brightened, but just as she was getting ready to move sparks flew. Her arm came up quickly to shield her eyes, but not fast enough. "Ah" she screamed as searing pain ran though her body.

"Captain!" B'Elanna was up and over to her location in seconds. She wasn't sure exactly what had just happened but it couldn't have been good. The lights that had turned on just seconds before the explosion dimmed once more.

Kathryn pulled her arms away from her face, tears had pooled in her eyes due to the stinging sensation the sparks had caused. She coughed several times and pushed herself out from behind the access point. Once she was far enough out to assure she wouldn't hit her head she turned onto her side, she attempted to pull her legs up so that she could get herself up of the ground, but the coughing made it nearly impossible, not to mention the fact she couldn't see where she was putting her hands.

She felt someone grab her by the shoulders. She knew it was B'Elanna, she could feel that she was being rolled on to her back. B'Elanna's stomach had formed a knot. The site of her commanding officer's state didn't help it any. Kathryn was burned across most of her upper face. "Captain," she questioned trying to get more of a response.

"I'm alright" her voice betrayed the statement.

"Yeah, you'd say that even if you'd just been mulled by a Targ" B'Elanna stated, placing an arm under her shoulders, and lifted her into a sitting position.

Her eyes had begun to clear as she attempted to get her feet up underneath her. It took a couple of attempts but with the help of B'Elanna she was able to find her footing. The half Klingon lead her over to a chair so that she could look her over. "I'm not sure what happened, it should have worked."

Once B'Elanna was sure that she was for the most part alright she went back to quickly scan the area she'd been working in. She sighed and came back, "somehow the relays in the adjacent section overloaded and sent a feedback surge." She looked her over.

Sighing again Kathryn said in exasperation, "at this rate we'll never get main power or the warp core back online."

B'Elanna sighed too and looked her over one more time; the burn on the right side of her face was getting worse and starting to blister. "Look, we're all starting to make mistakes; maybe we should call it a night. You're exhausted, and need to get to sickbay to be checked out. Not to mention that it's been hours since either one of us have eaten. You also have someone else that you need to take care of. Voyager is safe for the moment. In the morning we'll be able to focus better."

Unfortunately B'Elanna was right, they'd been trying to get main power back online for thirteen hours with no success. She was exhausted, but she couldn't just sit there. They needed to get power back and main systems online. Though they were in a nebula hiding there was still a chance that they could be found.

They'd been lucky when they'd come across the Korodians, three weeks prior, they weren't as lucky with the next group of aliens. Where the Korodians had seen her condition as a great and wonderful gift, provided them everything that they needed and even celebrated her and the crew of Voyager in an elaborate and dramatic ceremony, the Palit Emporium had perceived the child as a threat, claiming that it was an unholy event, and that the conception of the child was a sure sign of the evil in the universe and must be destroyed.

Of course they knew nothing about the Palit until they were about to leave orbit of the Korodian home world. Apparently some of their species had broken apart after the Borg had attacked and were following their own scriptures and had gotten word about the 'Motic.' Needless to say, Voyager and her crew had suddenly found themselves to be stuck in the middle of a holy war, the last thing that they needed and for the last three weeks they'd been perused by the Palit who were dead set on destroying them.

"Alright, I still want repair crews working round the clock, I will take six hours." Kathryn stated and stood.

B'Elanna nodded, "ensign" she said calling a young dark haired woman over. "I would like you to accompany the captain to sickbay."

Kathryn sent her a look but she knew the reason why. B'Elanna herself was going to stay working on the Warp Core, but she wanted to make sure that Kathryn didn't over do it. She also knew that the lifts were down and there was no way Chakotay would let either of them live it down if she were to be crawling through them alone. The three over protective men would prefer if she wasn't crawling though them at all, but at the moment with main power and most secondary systems being down there was no other choice. And, Kathryn was most certainly was not going to sit around doing nothing while her ship was in such a bad state.

She placed her hand on the Klingon's shoulder, "I'll see you in six hours." She stated. A nod was the only response she got just before B'Elanna turned and ducked back down to where she'd been before she'd come to her rescue.

-=/\=-

"For goodness sakes Captain, do you have no regard for your health or the health of your child?" The Doctor stated as he scanned her. It was obvious that she'd been exerting herself greatly, without eating, and well now she was also seriously burned. "I'm surprised that you can even see." He stated noting the fact that her corneas were also singed.

"Doctor I assure you that I haven't been taking extraordinary risks. This was an unforeseen accident. There was a power surge that was undetected." She stated, he'd insisted that she lay down, but she'd refused. She'd been laying down long enough and her back and baby were both extremely agitated with the idea.

"I'm not just talking about the burns." He huffed as he lifted up a device that had a small red light on the end, it resembled a pen. "Please look straight ahead and try not to blink." He stated then continued his reprimand. "I see that you haven't had anything substantial in the last sixteen hours, and you haven't had many liquids. You also haven't slept in the last thirty six hours. How do you expect to keep your ship safe, your crew safe, and deliver a healthy child, when you don't even do the most basic things to keep yourself safe?"

She moved her eyes to look straight into his. "Doctor, do I need to remind you of our current situation? And that the sooner we get power and warp drive back online the sooner we can get on our way and out of danger."

He scowled and forced her to look towards the light again, "Hold still, and no you don't have to remind me, but the ship needs a Captain that isn't going to pass out on them in the middle of an order. Now I want you off duty for the next twelve hours."

Her eyes moved again this time to fix him with a glare. "I told B'Elanna I'd be there in six hours; after I was done here I was planning on turning in for the evening."

"Captain, look straight ahead I can't repair the damage to your eyes otherwise, and I am saying twelve. You need more sleep than the rest of the crew, with the exception of Naomi Wildman, and I will not permit you to continue to neglect yourself in this manner. Twelve hours or I will confine you to sickbay." She'd managed to keep her eyes still long enough for him to repair the damage to them, when he looked down he could see her knuckles turning white as she was gripping the biobed. She was not very happy with him at the moment.

"Eight and I'll make sure I eat breakfast." She decided that maybe a diplomatic approach would work better.

"Twelve and that's a direct medical order," he picked up the dermal regenerator and tilted her head to the side so he could repair the burns. "And, you are to eat a substantial dinner, and breakfast the next morning. Do I make myself clear?"

He'd released her face once he was finished; she turned and looked him. "Perfectly" she all but spat from her lips, she was none too happy about having just been ordered off duty.

"Then you're free to go to your quarters." He stated letting her know that he was not afraid of the glare that she was sending him. After a moment of eyeing her back he turned his attention to another crewmember that had been moderately injured. She pushed herself off the biobed and started for the door.

She smiled to herself slightly, there really wasn't away for the Doctor to track her whereabouts at the moment, the comm. was down and the internal sensors weren't working properly. The only way he'd be able to tell if she'd not done what he'd said would be if someone were to say something. She looked around the corridor, there was no one there; she bit her lip for a moment then decided that she'd at least go to her quarters for a little while she after all was very much exhausted, and felt that sleep was one of the most important things for her to do. Though she only planed on getting the bare minimum that she needed. Voyager was still in danger and she couldn't rest well knowing that she was.

She went to the nearest Jefferies tube hatch, there wasn't anyone else around so if she were going to get there she'd have to go alone. She started the journey up the two decks to where her quarters were.

-=/\=-

Walking into engineering he looked around. The last time he'd heard Kathryn had been down there. He wanted to grab her and make sure that she had something to eat. "B'Elanna?" He knelt down next to where she was working.

She scooted so she could look out to where the voice had come from. "Yes Chakotay?" she asked her body was almost completely under the warp core and she was laying looking straight up into his face.

"Where's the Captain?" he questioned.

"I sent her to sickbay, we had a power surge and she'd gotten burnt slightly." She watched as his face became worried, "Don't worry it wasn't anything serious. After it'd happened, I had Ensign Alahra go with her to sickbay." She was working as she talked, not wanting to waist anytime. "She was going to turn in for the evening after she was done, that was about two hours ago, I'm sure she'd probably back in her quarters by now."

He narrowed his eyebrows, he'd just been there. "I was just there, she wasn't in them." Harry had managed to get the lifts operational about a half hour prior.

She looked up, "maybe the Doctor confined her to sickbay? You know how overprotective he can be."

"Thank B'Elanna, I'll go check and see." He stood and looked around to make sure she hadn't snuck back into engineering without anyone noticing. He then made his way to sickbay.

-=/\=-

"Ah, Commander what can I do for you?" The Doctor asked, looking up from one of the crewmembers that he was treating.

"I'm looking for the Captain; B'Elanna told me that she came here for some medical treatment." He was looking around the room; she wasn't one of the ones that were on a biobed.

"Ah, I sent her to get something to eat and sleep about an hour ago." He stated calmly. "I'd suspect that she's either in the mess hall or in her quarters, since the replicators are off line the only place to go would be the mess for nutrients." He placed the scanning equipment down and looked at him. "I told her that I wanted her to eat something substantial and to be off duty for the next twelve hours. Could you see that she does?"

Chakotay nodded, just one more place to look. He was fairly certain that she would be found in the mess hall. He also knew that she would probably be in a pretty foul mood when he got there. She hated it when the Doctor pulled rank on her.

-=/\=-

Upon entering the Mess it was obvious that she was not there. He looked around and sighed, where could she be. He decided before going to red alert that he'd look one last time in her quarters in case they'd just missed each other. He proceeded back up to deck three and walked in.

"Kathryn?" he called out looking around. There was no evidence that she'd been home yet. "Kathryn?" he walked into the sleeping area. He sighed with relief that she was there. At least she'd made it safe and sound. He turned and walked out of the room, making sure to silence her alarm, he knew that she would have set it.

Just as he walked out of her doors to get back to work himself his combadge chirped. "Seven of Nine to Commander Chakotay, the comm. system is operational again."

"Very good Seven, thank you for informing me. Chakotay out." At least it appeared that some of the more vital systems were beginning to get repaired. He decided since Kathryn was put on a twelve hour leave he'd try to see if he could be of assistance.

-=/\=-

The hum of the warp engines filled the room rousing her from her sleep. Blinking Kathryn looked around, she was in her quarters. "Computer what time is it?" she asked.

"The time is 0935 hours." The computer responded in its classic monotone female voice.

Kathryn sat up quickly, a bit too quickly; she became dizzy but quickly stilled herself. She'd been asleep for almost thirteen hours. Someone had obviously silenced her wakeup call or else she'd have been up hours before. The only person she could think that would have done that and would have known that she'd set one would have been Chakotay.

To say she was upset was an understatement. She was furious that he'd interfered and she had an idea that the Doctor had also been behind it, he probably informed him to make sure she stayed off duty for twelve hours. With a slight huff she pulled herself out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. She was surprised that she'd even been able to sleep for that long, she must have been completely exhausted.

After she'd changed into a new uniform she made her way to the mess hall, she was able to tell that repair teams had fixed the turbo lifts because as she rounded the corner she saw someone exit. At least she didn't have to go crawling though the ship. She was starving, and knew that the Doctor would more than likely check to see if she'd consumed anything. She hadn't the night before, on the way up to her quarters she'd found that she'd become extremely tired, nearly falling asleep in a sitting position in the tube.

The events of the night before quickly left her mind as she entered the Mess Hall. Neelix was there and with a large smile he greeted her. "Captain, welcome, what can I get for you?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, have the replicators been repaired?" she inquired; she knew she needed to get down to engineering and check on the progress, but she was almost crazy with hunger.

"No Captain they haven't, but I have taken the liberty to make sure there is enough food for everyone right here." He smiled as he motioned to the many dishes that he had ready to be served.

"In that case I'll have whatever is the most popular." She stated.

He nodded and dished up some sort of greenish colored soup, and then handed her the bowl. She looked at it and then back up to him, "can I also get the second most popular," she normally didn't eat a whole lot but since she hadn't had anything in at least a day she was feeling the effects. Somewhat embarrassed by asking for a second portion she added, "The baby's hungry."

His mouth formed into a huge smile, "of course, after all there are two of you." Not that he would have told the captain she couldn't have an extra helping ever. He handed her a second tray, it contained some kind of pasta with several vegetables from the airponics bay. She looked around for a seat but there weren't any empty tables. She then noticed that Harry was motioning for her to come over and sit down.

"Good morning Harry how are you today?" she asked, she decided though she was rather angry at the Doctor and Chakotay she should try to make sure she didn't take it out on anyone else. She was finding it harder to maintain her temper these days and felt bad for those that ended up in the cross fire.

"I'm not doing too bad captain, how are you?" he asked.

"I doing well, thank you." She stated as she tried the first of the two items. It was alright, not the best tasting thing in the world but it was editable.

As she ate she inquired as to how the repairs were going. He informed her that all of the main systems were back up and running and warp drive had just come online. She'd already figured that much by the fact she'd been woken up but the sound of the engines kicking on. It turned out that nearly all the secondary systems were up and running too with the exception of the sonic showers and replicators.

This was good news, after she'd finished her breakfast, Harry and she both made their way to the bridge. It was about time that they were on their way. It seemed that the crew was doing well even though she'd been gone. Once on the bridge she ordered for them to exit the nebula, hoping that after four days in hiding they would have given up searching for her. This sadly was a false hope. Once they were in sensor range Harry called out that there were four ships heading their way. Not wanting to stick around and find out if they were the friendly ships, or the not so friendly ones being that the Korodians and Palit both had the same type of vessel she ordered. "Mr. Paris take us out of here, warp nine" she wasn't about to stick around.

Thankfully the engines held and the ships did not follow them. Kathryn sank back in her chair and looked to the side. Chakotay was smiling at her. "What?" she asked wondering what was so amusing.

"Nothing, you just look well rested that's all." He was obviously tired and she realized that he probably pulled at least a double if not a triple shift in her place.

She sent him a sidelong glance, "if you ever do that again you will be in for it." She stated.

He feigned not to know what she was talking about, "what do you mean?"

"As if you don't know," is all she said she then turned her attention back to the screen. Hopefully she'd seen the last of those that thought the baby was more than what she was. She looked back to him after a few moments and it appeared like he was fighting sleep. She reached over and placed her hand on his arm, "Why don't you go and get some sleep, you look like hell." She suppressed a smile when he looked at her when she'd said that. When he didn't move the right side of her mouth twitched up slightly, "don't make me say that it's an order."

Giving in he nodded and stood, then made his way to get some sleep. She was right; he was really tired being that he'd been up for the same amount of time that she'd been sleeping. He knew that he would probably be laid into as soon as they were alone, but he'd only done what he did partly to keep the Doctor at bay, and because she needed the sleep. He also made sure that things were finished as quickly as they could be. He'd promised her that he would do anything to make her life easier and deal with the situation she was in and he intended to keep that promise.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

A/N: Okay I've decided to take this chapter more towards a lighthearted one; after all we've been doing some pretty stressful, tense, and interesting things. So well you'll have to read and find out what happens next!

-=/\=-

The last twenty four weeks on the Voyager had been more then eventful. She'd found out that she'd been expecting a baby that was from some life form they'd never heard of before, but then she'd recued several children from the Borg. Gone on a field trip that turned hairy with the children that were on her ship, found out that the child she was carrying was considered a holy gift by half of a culture and an unholy curse by the other half of the culture and had been pulled into the middle of a holy war. They had found the parents of one of the Borg children, only to find out that they only wanted him back to use him as a biological weapon against the Borg. Yes, needless to say life on the Voyager was eventful.

Thankfully things had seemed to die down at least a little for the time being. This was much welcome. Kathryn had decided that since they had some down time, they would take the time to work on making sure things were running at peak efficiency. They'd found a nice thankfully truly uninhabited planet and set down to over hull the ship. It'd taken a real beating and she wanted to make sure it had some nice tender love and care.

Now she was enjoying the fact that she didn't have much more to worry about other than to just chill and enjoy the idea of becoming a mother. She had also taken the opportunity since they were not flying through space to have B'Elanna look over her idea for modifying her quarters for the new arrival. She'd decided ultimately that it would be a good idea to leave them as two separate spaces, since there could be the potential for another family to arise on the ship in the future that may require the space. She of course was thinking about Tom and B'Elanna who had seemed to be pretty serious but hadn't actually asked to be married just yet.

The changes weren't hard to make, they'd taken the area that her lounge chair had once occupied and sectioned it off with a small dividing wall for the nursery. Kathryn now sat in a rocking chair Chakotay had made for her folding some of the clothing that she'd replicated for the baby. Sure she still had roughly fourteen weeks to go before the baby would be there, but she liked to have things ready well ahead of schedule.

After she'd folded and put away the last of the clothes she made her way to bed. She was exhausted and knew that Chakotay wouldn't be back for a while. She decided that she'd tuck herself in instead of waiting for him to return. She changed into a wonderfully soft satin nightgown that she'd replicated earlier in the weak when she found some of her other's just didn't seem to fit right. She then climbed into bed laying on her left on the left side of the bed. She was soon fast asleep.

-=/\=-

The realization of another person in the bed with her roused her slightly. She sighed and turned some towards the warmth. She reached her hand out as she turned her body. As her hand reached out and touched the other person, she realized that there was something wrong. Whoever was in bed with her was definitely not Chakotay. Kathryn's eyes snapped open, she gasped loudly and in a very shocked voice yell, "Q." She pulled her blankets closer to her body.

"Oh, Kathy dearest, did you miss me?" he asked in his ever so annoying tone.

She sighed loudly in disgust, then fixed him with a glare, "Get out of my bed Q." her voice was close to a hiss.

"Kathy, Kathy, Kathy, all this time and you don't even bother to say hello?" he feigned being hurt by her words.

She rolled her eyes and turned and stood up and walked across the room with her back to him. She reached for her robe and quickly placed it over her body. It was rather bulky, and covered much of the evidence of her current state. She crossed her arms in front of herself and turned back towards the pest that still lay in bed. "What do you want now Q?" She asked her eyes narrow.

"Can't an old friend stop by for a visit?" He'd clambered over to sit on the edge of her bed looking up at her as he spoke.

"I'm not buying it Q" she stated, lowering her head as well as her voice as she continued to glare in his direction.

Just when Kathryn had had about enough Chakotay walked into the room. He froze for a second and then he too shouted, "Q, what the hell are you doing here?"

Q gasped quickly upon seeing Chakotay, "Kathy, I knew it, it was another man!" with a flash of light her robe was gone and she stood there in just her night gown, Q standing on the other side of her looking at the swell of her lower abdomen. "My, My doesn't he work fast." He snickered.

Kathryn huffed and cocked her head in annoyance towards him. "It's not what you think Q." her lips were puckered and her eyes closed for a moment then looked up at him. Chakotay had pulled her closer to him, when Q reached out to touch her stomach. Kathryn had to suppress a laugh at the fact he was being so over protective and it wasn't even his child. Not to mention the fact that if Q really wanted to do something, there really wasn't any way to prevent him from doing so.

"Just what do you want Q?" Chakotay questioned.

The annoying man just rolled his eyes, "why is it, that everyone always thinks I want something?" He decided not to leave them time to answer the first question, and jumped immediately into asking another. "Oh and Kathy, if it isn't what I think it is then what is it?" he eyed her rather sultry.

Kathryn stepped back in not giving Chakotay a chance, "To answer your first question." Her expression was rather exaggerated as well, "it's because you always have wanted something when you've shown up here. And, as you're your second question, that's none of your business."

She turned heal and walked into the main living area. Chakotay wasn't far behind her. Of course this was a futile attempt to evade him. Another flash of light rang though the room, and Q was standing at the entrance of the cubical they'd set up for the baby. He momentarily disappeared into the area and came back holding one of the outfits that she'd just folded earlier that day. "Hum, if it's not what I think it is; then what is this for?" he looked down at the small pink onesy and pouted, "and to think I gave you the opportunity of a life time to have my child, and what do you do, you turn me down for this big ofe."

She placed her hand onto Chakotay's arm when she'd noticed that he'd made a fist. She then turned her attention back to Q, and with her free hand snatched the garment that he was holding from his hands. "Not that it's any of your business Q, but they baby's not his, and carrying your child, that was hardly the offer of a lifetime."

The man before her looked taken aback and surprised, "I can't believe you'd stand for that, the child's not yours, than why are you still with her?" he was a bit surprised, he thought that he'd known Chakotay at least well enough to think he wouldn't put up with a cheating woman. He turned his attention back to Kathryn who was once again refolding the item. "tisk tisk Kathy, who's the father" he grinned, "or have you told him even?"

She rolled her eyes, she wasn't going to explain herself to him, but Chakotay couldn't help himself, he had to defend her honor. "The baby was conceived when a non-corporeal life form entered her body while she was sleeping."

"Really? You'd allow yourself to have this creatures child but not mine." He was pretending to be all to hurt by the information he was getting.

"Come off it Q, you already knew all this before you got here, quit using us to amuse yourself and find some other creature to annoy, perhaps a Torakian Alligator. Or better yet, why don't you go and find yourself a nice little ameba to bother, I'm sure they would find you to be charming." She made her way to the replicator and ordered something hot and soothing to drink. She was starting to get a headache.

"Come on Q cut the crap and tell us what you're really here for." Chakotay stated, as he placed himself between him and Kathryn, he knew that it really wouldn't do any good but it made him feel like he was providing her some protection. Though, she seemed to be handling herself just fine.

"Oh alright," he flashed in front of her once more and took the hand that wasn't holding her cup of tea into his. "Kathy I wish to be the God Father." He looked into her eyes pleading.

Kathryn removed her hand from his and stepped back. "What makes you think I want you to be the God Father of my child." She said her eyes wide.

He looked down hurt, "well, I just thought since we were such good friends and all, and the fact that I made you the God Mother of my son, that." He looked up to her with puppy dog eyes.

She sighed and turned to the face the viewport for a second. She thought over what he'd said, true she was the God Mother of his child, but did she really want Q to be the one that her baby would go to if something were to happen to her? She turned back, "Q, I really am happy that you asked me to be the God Mother of your son, and I'll think about it, I have had several requests already." She stated truthfully. Neelix, Tom, and Harry had all shown interest in being the God Father of the baby, and B'Elanna very much wanted to be the God Mother.

"I would be the perfect one for the job!" he exclaimed, "think of what life would be like for her whenever I baby sat, we could see nebulas, knock small planets out of orbit, and not to mention it would give Jr. a friend to play with." He was walking around the room using his hands as he spoke. "I mean, the possibilities for your child would be endless!"

She sighed there was just no getting though to him, "Q listen, I'm tired, no exhausted is more like it, the last six months have been very tiring, not to mention stressful. I still have three months to go to choose who I want to be the God parents. All I want to do at the moment is enjoy the fact that I'm going to become a mother, spend some time with my partner, and get some sleep." She started back towards where her bed was.

Q turned to look at Chakotay, "she's seriously not going to give me an answer?" he asked a bit confused.

"Looks like she isn't" he stated. "She wants to make sure who she chooses to be the God parents are going to be the perfect ones for the job that's all. And, she is right, she does have three months to mull over her decision." He was hoping that he would at least convince him to leave them alone for the night.

Q seemed to think over what he said. Chakotay couldn't help but be really concerned when his face lit up and he put a finger up in the air, "That's it, I'm just going to have to show her that I'm the perfect one for the job!" than in a flash of light he was gone.

Chakotay sighed and walked into the other room where Kathryn was. She was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hand on her belly. She was looking down as if she were in deep thought. She heard him come into the room and looked up, "is he gone?"

"For the time being." He stated.

"Can you inform Tuvok to keep an eye out for anything that may be out of the ordinary? I heard what he said, and frankly that really bothers me." She looked up to meet his eyes. "Do you really think the only reason why he showed up is because he wants to be the God Father?"

Chakotay shrugged, "it could be, after all you are the God Mother of his son, but then again, usually his visits have more to them than meets the eye." He sat down for a moment on the bed next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder pulling her into him. She sighed and closed her eyes as he kissed her forehead. After a few moments of tenderly holding her he moved back slightly. "I'd better talk to Tuvok, I think that you should lie back down, you look like you haven't been asleep long."

She nodded him and leaned her head up to take his lips. The kiss was tender merely a gesture of how much she cared for him and loved how he helped support her. After the kiss he stood so that she could get her feet up onto the bed. He pulled the blankets up over here and knelt down next to the bed so that he could give her a kiss on the fore head. "You get to sleep; I'll be back shortly after I talk with Tuvok."

With one last slight nod she closed her eyes. She hoped that the next time she woke up, the correct man would be in bed next to her. As she drifted off to sleep she just couldn't seem to shake the feeling that Q wanted more.

After tucking her in, he made his way into the main living space. He pressed his combadge, "Chakotay to Tuvok"

"Tuvok here, what is it commander?" his voice was louder then Chakotay had hoped. Figuring the sooner he got off the comm. the sooner she'd be able to actually fall back to sleep.

"We just had a visit from Q, keep an eye out for anything strange. His request seemed innocent enough, but we can't rule out or past experiences. The Captain and I suspect that he is up to something." He lifted up the onesy that Kathryn had folded back up and took it to where he knew she'd been keeping the baby's clothes as he waited for a response.

"Of course Commander, I will alert you and the Captain if anything unusual starts to happen. I will also see about increasing security measures, though I'm certain they will pose no obstacle to him." He stated.

"Thank you Mr. Tuvok, Chakotay out." He closed the link and walked back into the room. Apparently their conversation hadn't been too loud because she was already sleeping. He quietly changed into a simple pair of pants, leaving his shirt off and carefully crawled into bed next to her. He pulled the blankets over himself, and turned to wrap his arm around her waist. She sighed subconsciously in her sleep at the contact. He paused for a moment so that he didn't actually wake her up before he made his last attempt to get settled. Instead of falling asleep right away, he just listed to her breathing. A smile formed on his lips as he drifted off to sleep some time later thinking that he was probably the luckiest man in the universe, that she'd decided to be his.

-=/\=-

Stepping out of the turbo lift she took a moment to look around. She breathed a sigh of relief so far so good. It seemed that Q was leaving them alone. She made her way over to Tuvok. "So any sign of our guest?" she questioned the annoyance that she had for the man's antics, was clearly evident in her voice.

"So far I've seen no evidence of Q on board." he was still busy scanning.

"Very good." She turned back around to look over the bridge, everyone was there already including Chakotay, he'd gotten up before her; he tended to do that now. She walked down and took her seat. "How are repairs going?" she questioned.

"So far so good, B'Elanna thinks that we'll be ready for lift off in the next two days." He informed her.

She nodded, as much as she'd been enjoying not having to worry about running into another hostel race; she was starting to become restless with just sitting around. Though most of the crew had gotten a chance to get off the ship, she herself hadn't. After the last time she went planet side she herself, along with her trio of over protective men had decided that at least for now it would be best if she wasn't off the ship unless she absolutely had to be. She rubbed the side of her face; she'd been fighting a headache since she'd woken up. After a few moments longer she turned to look at Chakotay. "I think I'm going to go to my ready room, I have a number of reports to read over. You have the bridge."

He nodded, and watched as she pulled herself up out of the chair and made her way to the safety of the ready room. He'd been surprised that she'd actually gotten sleep the night before after Q's visit. After watching her disappear behind the doors, he turned his attention back to what he'd been looking over.

-=/\=-

Two steps was as far as she got. The smell of baby powder filled the room almost to the point of being dizzying. Her mouth was wide open as she looked around, her hand came up to her forehead as she rubbed her temple, so much for no evidence of Q. Standing up straighter and stretching she turned back around and went back onto the bridge.

She sat down in her seat with a bit of a huff, and leaned to the right resting her head in her hand. Chakotay looked up surprised, "I thought you were going to your ready room to work?" he questioned.

She sighed and shifted so she could lean closer to him, "I was, but it appears my ready room is now a nursery." She looked exasperated.

"Nursery?" he questioned.

She nodded, "go see for yourself." She then leaned back placing her head on the chair as she sighed once more.

He cautiously stood up and crossed the bridge. He walked into the ready room and immediately saw what she was meaning. There literally was nowhere to walk; the room was filled with probably everything you needed for a child for the first three years.

There was a large stack of toys, many of them alien to him; Dippers filled her entire coffee table, and there seemed to be more clothing then any person could ever ware strewn all over her desk. He shook his head and turned around as well. He was trying not to laugh as he made his way back to his chair. "Well he most certainly has provided you with everything you need."

She rolled her eyes, "I don't need all of that and neither does she, there's more things in that ready room then I'd ever be able to fit in our quarters." She sighed heavily, what was she going to do with all of that stuff? She was pretty sure Q wasn't going to get rid of it. She shifted in her chair some more, it was obvious that she was uncomfortable. The reason she'd been planning to sit in her ready room to work was because her desk chair had been changed to one that was similar to the one that was in the briefing room, a far more comfortable place for her to work.

She moved and looked at him, "I'm going to the briefing room. At least I'll be able to concentrate in there. Can you get someone to take all those things to the cargo bay? I'll go through it later, if Q doesn't simply remove it, and figure out what I do need and don't. Might as well use what he's provided." She stood and straightened her uniform before making her way into seclusion.

Chakotay had to admit, maybe this time Q really did only have the best intentions but like always he tended to _way_ over do things. "Ensign Kim, please arrange a team to transport the contents in the ready room to the cargo bay."

"Sir?" he questioned not sure what he was talking about.

"Q has provided some provisions for the captain's baby, but they're kind of in the way." He stated looking back at the young man. He was a bit amused but knew Kathryn wasn't in the least.

Harry's brow furrowed, "aye sir." He then went about recruiting help. Knowing Q he was probably going to need it.

-=/\=-

There were tons and tons of baby things in the cargo bay. Neelix had greeted her when she walked in. "Captain, well Q most certainly has given you everything you're ever going to need for the baby." He stated and he moved to allow her to look around. "We've taken the liberty of organizing it so that it is easier to go though. Over here we have the clothing; we have sorted them by size. Toys are over here, we've taken care of sorting them by age group. And, over here are all the hygiene and care supplies, blankets, pillows, dippers."

She knelt down and lifted up a strange looking item, "Mr. Neelix what do you suppose this is?" She tilted it back and forth in her hands, it wasn't very heavy but it appeared to be the size that a baby would fit in perfectly.

"I'm not entirely sure; we think it might be a baby bath station that was our best guess." He took the item from her and placed it back on the ground.

She walked around the room, there certainly was just about everything you could think of for a baby. She lifted up a toy, "what type of creature do you suppose this is?" It was almost dog like, but had a much longer neck and about ten legs.

"I'm not sure; knowing Q it is probably something from some species we've never seen before." Neelix watched as she placed the item back down onto the table along with the hundreds of other stuffed animals.

She sighed, she really had no interest in having all these things, but since Q hadn't appeared since he dropped them all off there wasn't much she could do about them at the moment. "Thank you Mr. Neelix, I'll actually sort though everything myself and see what items I want and which ones we can hold in case we have other's that have children later." She suspected that by now and the fact she was going to have a child, they would probably be staring to have families. She looked back at him, "perhaps some of these items would be useful for Isabel."

Neelix smiled, that was a pretty good idea. He nodded and watched as she left for her quarters.

-=/\=-

She decided to go and sit in the nursery that Chakotay and she had so carefully designed. She was feeling very overwhelmed by all that was going on with Q. The cargo bay looked like a child care store. She removed her outer Jacket and made her way to the door to the nursery. She froze and sighed when she turned around the corner. "Q, put them back" she called out loudly to the empty room.

The rocking chair and crib had been replaced. He flashed into the room, "Now Kathy what could you want with those primitive care devices. These are the most state of the art."

"I don't want state of the art, I want the ones that were here." She walked out of the room having had about enough.

"Why not, don't you want the best for your baby?" he'd flashed in front of her and placed his hand on her stomach.

She turned as she took a deep breath, "Yes, I want the best, but I didn't want those items in there. Chakotay spent a lot of time hand crafting both the crib and the rocking chair. If I had wanted a high-tech sate of the art rocking chair, and crib I would have replicated them myself." She sat down in her arm chair and put her arm over her eyes. "Q, you may not understand this, but I'd much rather have something that was made with love and care for my child, then to have something that is considered the newest and the best. So if you wouldn't mind please bring back the rocking chair and crib."

He looked down and thought on this and then waved his hand, "as you wish, I'm just trying to help." He was now kneeling in front of her. "So how'd you like your other gifts?" he asked hopeful.

She sighed and looked him straight in the eyes, "I very much appreciate that you want to help, but she really doesn't need all of those things. She'll probably only latch on to a few items that she likes the most."

He bit his lip thinking on what she said, "I know you gave some of them to that Borg infant."

She leaned her head to the side contemplating what to say next. "Yes, I did, not because I don't appreciate them, but like I said, there really are too many items there. It's not like I can even fit them in here. I figured why not let some of the other children that could use them have them also." He actually truly looked hurt that she hadn't wanted what he was giving her. She reached out and put her hand under his chin. She lifted face so she could look into his eyes. "Look Q, if it really means that much for you to be the God Father, alright."

He looked up and smiled broadly, she decided that she needed to make some conditions, "But, that doesn't mean you can take her out whenever you feel like, she is my child and I will not have her put in any kind of danger. Furthermore, you have to stop trying to help so much; we have been raising children as a species for hundreds of thousands of years. I think we know how to do it, and, most importantly, I will have a second god father, and a god mother or her, I think that I need to have some people she's closer too involved in her life, do I make myself clear?"

He nodded and the leaned forward and placed a kiss on her lips, when he pulled back the disgust on her face was clear as day. "Oh Kathy, you're not going to be sorry you asked me to do this." With that he was gone in a flash.

She sighed again and closed her eyes leaning her head in her hand her elbow resting on the edge of the chair. She couldn't believe that she'd just agreed to that. Perhaps he would be happy enough that he'd leave her alone for a while, if she were only that lucky. She stood and stretched deciding that she was in the mood for a nice warm bath, not as hot as she liked due to the fact it could hurt the child growing in side her, but she felt a soak would be far better than a sonic shower.

She shed her clothing and drew her bath, once she added some rose scented bubbles she slowly sank into the tub lavishing at the feeling of the warm water surrounding her. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the edge of the tub; so that she could truly immerse herself in the feeling.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

-=/\=-

The room was dim, and many different species mingled around in the bar. A man walked up to her. She turned her head to the side to look up at him. She had a fair idea of what his intentions were because he'd been wandering from woman to woman the entire night. Up until now she'd been in the company of either B'Elanna or Chakotay. They'd come across this outpost and the Magistrate insisted that all the crew of Voyager needed to visit, that included her. She was the first one he wanted to meet being that she was the captain. At first Tuvok, Chakotay, the Doctor, and She had been dubious about her leaving the ship, being that she was now twenty eight weeks, but he refused to let them dock or to trade with them until they'd agreed that she'd meet up with him.

Chakotay agreed to her going on one condition, he went with her. They'd just finished up their talks and Voyager would be given the supplies that she required. The Magistrate had left only a few minutes before Chakotay decided that he would get everyone something more to drink and B'Elanna excused herself to the lady's room; now she sat alone at the table. Apparently she seemed like a good target.

The table was high and hid her fairly large abdomen well, she looked at the man and was about to say something when he spoke. "Hello there, I haven't see you here before."

She thought that it never ceased to amaze her, the lack of creativity within nearly any species when it came to pick up lines. She raised her eyebrow, "I'm just passing through." She sated, she sipped the drink that had been provided her. The Magistrate had assured her that it contained no intoxicants.

"Shame, a beautiful woman like yourself." He sated leaning on the edge of the table and gawking at her breasts that were larger then they normally would have been due to her current state. He then raised his eyes to look her in the face. He wasn't a bad looking alien, he reminded her of Tom aside from the large cheetah like spots that went from the corners of his eyes to his ears. "You know, I'm a pilot, I could show you how fast my ship is."

She rolled her eyes, he was even a pilot. Her drink glass went to the table with a slight clink. She turned her body in her chair so she could stand up. She pushed herself up so that her full body could be seen. She then turned back with a sassy smile said, "I'm sure it's not fast enough." Her hand went to stroke the evidence of her child.

The man's eyes blinked rapidly before he opened his mouth to say something. Deciding that it might be best to leave with some of his dignity in tacked, he turned heal, and went back the direction he came. She leaned on the table smirking as he sulked away. She turned her head up when she heard Chakotay, "What was that all about?"

Her hand came up to her mouth as she laughed, "He wanted to show me his ship."

He raised his eyebrow handing her another one of the drinks that she'd been sipping earlier. "Well glad I wasn't here." He stated glaring after the individual that had had the nerve to hit on her.

"Why Commander I do believe you are jealous." She smiled broadly as she retook the chair she'd just exited.

"I am not jealous." He sulked as he took the seat next to her; he then noticed that B'Elanna wasn't there. "Where's B'Elanna?" he questioned.

"She excused herself to the lady's roo…" she stopped as she saw something that wasn't going to end well. Chakotay followed her gaze and saw the man that had just been talking with Kathryn about ready to make a fatal mistake. "Go get her!" Kathryn said quickly.

Chakotay hurried and made his way to her and put his arm around her shoulder before she had a chance to swing at the man. It was obvious he'd said something that highly offended her. "Hey, it's all right Love" he covered quickly; "don't let this Patak bother you." He was well aware that the man wouldn't have understood what he was saying, but would get the idea that it wasn't something he wanted to know about.

She glared over her shoulder as Chakotay guided her back to where Kathryn was. He let go of her once they were at the table. "You should have let me deck him, he was so rude." She was not happy. She then narrowed her eyes, "so do I need to tell Tom you're calling me Love now?"

Kathryn tried not to laugh but couldn't help herself. "I'm sure he'd understand the reasons, how about we get back to the ship before we find ourselves in the middle of a brawl." She'd decided that things were starting to get out of control. They were done with what they needed and as nice as it was to be off the ship in a semi-relaxing environment, it wouldn't do any of them good, if they ended up in a fist fight.

"I think that's a really good idea." Chakotay filled in as he took the arm of both Kathryn and B'Elanna. He purposefully paraded the two of them past the man that had been trying to hit on them. He grinned cockily as he walked by and sent the man a wink. All he got in return was a glare that was nearly as good as Kathryn's.

-=/\=-

The sound of laughter filled the transporter room, "was that really necessary?" Kathryn laughed once they appeared on the transporter padd.

B'Elanna too was amused, "of course it was; that guy down there is probably trying to figure out where he went wrong."

The group walked out of the transporter room and into the corridor towards the lift. "Hey I couldn't let him get away with trying to seduce my two best girls."

Kathryn raised her eyebrow, "is there something going on that I need to know about?" she eyed the other woman with mock suspension as they entered the turbo lift. Each called for the respective decks that they needed to be on.

B'Elanna only laughed, "You don't have to worry; he's not my type." She winked and then stepped off the lift when it reached her destination.

Once B'Elanna was gone Kathryn turned back to look at him. "Love eh? You don't call me that." She set a fake pout on her lips.

"I thought you didn't like pet names." He challenged her back raising his eye brows.

She looked up from the corner of her eyes at nothing in particular her mouth twisted as if contemplating what to say next. "Well I could make an exception for that one." She looked down then up, "unless we're on duty that is." Her mouth changed to her famous toothy grin.

"Alright Love how about we return to our quarters and get something to eat?" He'd released her shoulders and let his hand drop down her back and then took her hand into his. She clasped it softly and nodded. She was hungry and knew that he should probably eat something as well being that the Magistrate had insisted that since, he was not pregnant, that he have at least one beverage that he chose, he wouldn't take no for an answer and wouldn't accept that they didn't drink while on duty.

-=/\=-

"So how have you been feeling lately?" the Doctor asked as he ran his tricorder over her body.

"I've been feeling pretty well," she stated, "though I do have a pain that keeps going down my leg."

"Hum, the baby is probably sitting on your sciatic nerve. If it doesn't clear up in the next week I will see if I can desensitize the nerve some. Other than that make sure that you stay off your feet best you can and keep your feet up while you are sitting down and it should help with the pain." He stated placing his tricorder down. Kathryn pushed herself up into a sitting position. She tilted her head knowing that a hypo spray full of vitamins was heading her way. She was right.

Subconsciously rubbing the spot that she'd been injected she turned to look at him. "I'm still nowhere near as large as Samantha was at this stage, are you sure the baby is growing well?" She was concerned because she just didn't seem to be as large as every other woman that she'd seen that was pregnant.

"Yes, Captain, I'm sure she is, she is within the normal range for a child of her gestational age. She is sitting high up in your uterus and close to the back, where Samantha carried Naomi front and center." He stated, "And you also have only gained the weight of the baby, so it really isn't that surprising that you're smaller." She smiled at his reassurance. "if it will make you feel better, I can show her to you in live time."

She looked up at him. "You can do that?" she asked.

"Yes of course," he pressed a few buttons on a console and up came an image of a baby. It wasn't perfectly clear like if she was sitting right there in front of her but it was clear enough. "See she's about fourteen inches and weighs just about two pounds. A little small, but then again you weren't that large when you were born either." He watched as she looked at the monitor in awe. She put her right hand on the screen and her left on her belly.

He was right, she was a small baby, she was just about four pounds when she was born, and was only twenty inches long. She also wasn't exactly the tallest woman in the world either. "She's so beautiful" she smiled.

The Doctor beamed, "of course she is, she's almost you."

She turned to look up at him a large smile playing on her lips at his compliment. Her eyes were sparkling much like a child on Christmas morning. "Thank you Doctor."

He pressed a button and the image disappeared, he then placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're very welcome."

She blinked a few times and then stood. She had to be getting to the bridge. "I'll see you later Doctor." She then made her way to her station the euphoria of seeing the baby causing her to have a bit of a skip to her step.

-=/\=-

It was the end of her shift but she still had a few things that she needed to take care of. She was a little surprised that Chakotay hadn't come into her ready room to get her. She raised her eyebrow at the fact it was a bit odd, but he once in a while didn't. She was rocking in her chair slightly when her comm. sounded. "Neelix to Captain Janeway, I think you'd better get down here. There's a situation that needs your attention." He sounded very worried, and if it wasn't her imagination it sounded almost as if there was shouting and the clinging of pots and pans.

She sighed and put the padd she was reading down on the desk. "I'm on my way Neelix." The link closed and she made her way to the mess hall. What could possibly be going on and why wasn't Chakotay able to handle it.

-=/\=-

Tom and Harry placed the pans they'd been clinging together down, and a few of the crewmen stopped their arguing. "Alright everyone, get into position" Neelix said. He waited until everyone was hidden behind something before he shut the lights off completely.

"Hey get off my foot." Harry stated.

"Sorry, I can't see a thing," B'Elanna replied.

"Shh" Tom chided both of them.

Everyone settled down to wait until the she got there. It wasn't long soon the doors opened.

"Neelix?" She called out looking around, it was pitch black. She narrowed her eyes, what was going on. "Neelix" she huffed slightly, "Computer lights."

As soon as the lights turned on everyone jumped out from behind the furniture. "Surprise!" was the words that emanated out of everyone's mouth.

Her mouth was on the floor. "What in the…" she stopped talking when B'Elanna walked up to her.

The young woman took her by the hands and led her to a table. "It's your baby shower." She grinned; Kathryn took the seat that was offered to her.

She couldn't help but smile as everyone gathered around her and began piling the gifts they'd gotten for her onto the table. "We know that Q has pretty much given you everything that you could ever imagine needing, but we thought it'd be fun to give you and the baby gifts of our own." Harry smiled as he handed her a box wrapped in pastel pink paper with a bright pink bow carefully tied around it.

"Oh what's this?" she asked not really expecting an answer, she slowly undid the bow and carefully unwrapped it. Her eyes lit up as she opened the box. "Oh, Harry it's beautiful." Her voice was extremely soft nearly a whisper as she held up a small silver box with a glass top. It had a spot where her name would eventually go.

"May I?" he asked taking it from her. She nodded and watched as he explained what it was. "My mom had one of these for me. You put some of her mile stones in it. Here is for when she gets he first hair cut, this right here is for her first tooth. This back here is for a hard copy of her birth certificate."

He handed her back the box so she could look at it a bit closer. "Harry, I love it thank you very much." She reached out and gave him a hug before she set the box down. She was rewarded by the huge smile the crossed his face.

B'Elanna handed her another gift, "this one is from me."

This present was larger than the last. The paper was white with pink roses and a beautiful decretive bow. Once again she carefully unwrapped it, "B'Elanna," she looked up at the young Klingon, "I'm sure she's going to just adore this." She lifted what the box contained; it was a mobile of earth's solar system, complete with Voyager hanging from the center.

"I figured we should make sure she knows where she came from, and where we're all going to be one day." B'Elanna's gift had almost brought tears to everyone's eyes. With the exception of Seven and Tuvok that was.

Kathryn stood this time. She walked over and encircled B'Elanna in a hug, "its perfect B'Elanna." She let her go and looked her straight in the eyes, all the emotions conveyed to her. She swallowed so she wouldn't' start crying right then and there. She nodded and carefully set the mobile down next to Harry's gift. She took her seat once more. Tom brought the next gift.

The yellow and pink stripped paper was slowly pulled away, a huge smile formed when she lifted out the item that was placed in the box. "The Delta Flyer." She looked up at him.

"It's a baby safe model for her to play with when she's a bit older. It's a solid piece, there's nothing that can come off." He stood proudly looking over the item he'd made.

"I love it and I think she will, too, Thank you Tom." She placed her hand on his arm and gave it a tender squeeze letting him know how much she loved the gift. She placed it next to the other gifts she had already received.

Seven walked up and handed her a somewhat large box. "This is from me." She stated.

Kathryn took it from her and carefully peeled away the silver paper. She reached in and lifted out the item. "It's a dipper bag, I did some research and found that many women use these to help organize and keep all the items they need for their infants in close reach." Kathryn held it up and everyone smiled at the fact it had the federation insignia on it. It was black and red like her uniform and the buttons appeared to look like pips. "I also made sure that it would match your usual attire."

Her face was beginning to hurt from smiling so much, "Thank you very much Seven, its very efficient." This earned her a nod.

The Doctor handed her a flat looking package. She raised he eyebrow and once again carefully undid the wrapping paper. She lifted it up and looked at him with a sideways glace. "What is it Doctor?" she asked.

"It's a projection device. It will display lights and colors on the wall and ceiling and play music. I have recorded several lullabies myself and have included them in its programming. It's good for the baby's ocular and audio development." He stood up proudly.

"I think she'll enjoy this very much." She too gave his arm a soft squeeze.

Neelix approached her "Open this one next captain, it's from me." He waited eagerly for her to open the smaller rectangle box. It was wrapped up in silver paper with pink hearts.

She laughed when she lifted out the item. "Oh Neelix, it's adorable." She held up the outfit for everyone to see, "it's a baby uniform. Complete with little boots" she lifted the small boots out the box. She then took note of something on the collar of it and laughed even more. "Look there's even little pips and a combadge embroidered on it." Everyone chuckled as she held up the miniature version of her own uniform.

"I'm glad you like it Captain." He stated blushing slightly.

She looked over her shoulder, "It's wonderful."

Tuvok presented her a large somewhat flat box as well. She took it from him and noted the precise wrapping job he'd done. There wasn't even a single miss placed crease to be seen on the pink paper. She carefully unwrapped it, and then lifted out the gift. "Tuvok" she whispered and looked him in the eyes.

"I am aware that it will take her some time to be large enough to use it, but I recall you saying that you had never had the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument. I wish to provide your child with the opportunity. When she is old enough I will instruct her how to play" he stated as she looked over the Lute.

She looked into his eyes and nodded, "I would love for you to teach her how to play, thank you very much Tuvok." He bowed his head in recognition of her words.

Samantha was the next to present a gift to her. Her gift came in a moderately sized box wrapped in pastel blue paper with pink swirls. There was an elegant looking flower on top of the box. Kathryn smiled at the gift that was inside. "Samantha, it's gorgeous." She lifted the hand crocheted blanket out of the box and held it up for everyone to see, it had pink and purple stripes, with a pastel blue ruffled boarder.

"I remember the blanket you made Naomi; I wanted to return the favor."

Kathryn gave her a hug. "Thanks Sam."

Naomi approached her, she had insisted on using some of her own rations to make sure that she gave the captain a gift as well. "Captain, I got this one for you myself."

"Thank you Naomi." She took the gift from her, it was a medium sized package, and the pink wrapping paper with teddy bears had obviously been wrapped by an inexperienced individual. Kathryn removed the paper and opened the box. Her smile grew even larger, "Flotter" she turned her attention back to the young girl. "Thank you very much Naomi, I'm sure she'll enjoy this doll."

Naomi's smile grew greatly as well, and it grew even more so when she reached out to hug the child. "I'm very glad you like it captain."

"I do like it, thank you once again." She released the child and turned her attention to Chakotay who'd come up to her.

He knelt down next to her, "I have something for you too." He smiled broadly. He pulled out a very small box, it was unwrapped. Her eyes grew extremely wide and her mouth dropped open. Everyone else in the room just beamed at the scene before them. "I was wondering if, you would like a father for her." He opened the blue velvet box and in the center of it was a gold ring with a single sparkling diamond in the center.

She gasped for a moment tears wailing up in her eyes. She set Flotter down on the table and turned towards him. She nodded and then managed to find the words, "Of course." She watched as he took her left hand into his and carefully slid the ring onto her finger. He'd placed the box on the floor already and took her other hand into his. He held onto both her hands for a moment looking deeply into her eyes before he captured her lips into his. The kiss was searing and passionate. For a moment Kathryn had forgotten that there was anyone else in the room with them. The sound of the hoots, howls, and cheers didn't seem to find her ears at first. She wrapped her arms around his neck as the kiss deepened once more.

Naomi turned away her nose wrinkling at the site of the command team kissing. That was the one thing she still didn't like about adults.

After what seemed like forever the need for oxygen forced the kiss to break. They both sat there for a moment lost in the gaze of the other. She couldn't help herself silent tears flowed down her cheeks. He looked at her with his head tilted he placed both hands on her face wiping the tears away with his thumbs. "Hey, why are you crying?" he asked softly.

"Because I'm so happy." She managed to say. She turned her head as she felt another hand on her shoulder it was B'Elanna.

"Congratulations" she pulled her into a hug herself and then looked at the ring that he'd given her. "It's beautiful." All both of them could do was nod. Soon everyone that was in the room filed over to look at the ring. This was most certainly an amazing day.

After a little while and once everyone had had a chance to congratulate and hug the captain and pat Chakotay on the back Neelix disappeared, He came back carrying a large tray. "So who's hungry!" he stated. After he set down a couple more trays of food he emerged carrying a Jimbalian fudge cake.

The party went well into the night, everyone celebrating not only the baby Kathryn was going to have, but the new engagement. Towards the end of the night Kathryn yawned. Samantha looked at her, "Captain you look exhausted."

She turned and looked the blonde woman in the face, "I'm fine Sam, a bit tired but I'm not sure if I want this night to end."

"I know what you mean," she remembered how she felt when she'd gotten engaged, and then when she found out that she was going to have Naomi, and how real and wonderful the idea was when she'd had the baby shower. True there weren't nearly as many people at hers, they'd only been on the ship for about a year, and no one was quite as close as they were now. But, it'd been a wonderful day regardless.

Kathryn yawned again and sighed. She laughed and turned back to Sam, "I guess I should call it a night." She managed to push herself out of the chair with a bit of effort. She'd been sitting in almost the same position most of the night. She just couldn't find any other one that was comfortable, but being sedentary had its own set of issues. Her hand landed on Chakotay's arm and he turned to look at her with a questioning look. She tried to suppress yet another yawn; Then managed to say. "I think I'm ready to turn in."

"Alright, I think we can head off, after all it is getting late." He took her by the arm and they one by one said their goodnights to everyone that had joined the party. They both made sure to thank everyone for coming and for all the wonderful and personal gifts that they'd given her. Neelix assured her that he'd clean everything up and have the items delivered first thing in the morning. She accepted this before heading off for a good night's sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

-=/\=-

They'd gotten some information from Starfleet as well as letters from home. She smiled as she thought how happy the crew had been to receive the letters. She looked up when her chime rang. It was the Doctor.

"Yes what is it Doctor?" she asked when he walked in.

The holographic man looked a bit nervous. "Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, my creator, he's dying." He stated.

"I'm very sorry to hear that." She looked up at to him, after his profile appeared on her screen.

"I believe I can help him, Captain." He stated standing up tall.

"How?" she inquired not sure what he was thinking of.

"You remember the Vidiians. The early stages of the phage are very similar to Dr Zimmerman's disease. I believe I can adapt a variety of Borg regeneration techniques to arrest the cell damage, maybe even reverse it." The entire time he spoke he waved the data padd that he held up in the air.

She smiled as she stood up from behind her desk to make her way over to get her second cup of coffee for the day. "Make sure to pass along your findings. Thank you, Doctor."

He turned to look at her as she walked. She hadn't quite gotten to the coffee pot. "Actually, I was hoping to administer the treatment myself."

"What are you suggesting?" she lifted up her cup and went to reach down for the pot.

He walked towards her as he spoke. "I'd like you to send my program back to the Alpha Quadrant." She looked at him shocked, not sure what to say or do, he continued to speak. "None of the doctors at Starfleet are familiar with these techniques. It would take them months to fully understand them, much less put them to use."

Kathryn most certainly didn't like this idea one bit "Even if we could send you, you're needed here." She finished pouring her cup.

"Mr. Paris can take over Sickbay. He's more than capable." She looked up with a sideways glare as the coffee filled her cup. "We've done this once before. There weren't any problems."

She walked towards him so that she could look him in the eyes. "Three years ago and we used alien technology."

"I've spoken to Seven of Nine. She believes we can compress my program." He stepped up onto the same level she was standing on.

"There's limited space in the DataStream. If we send you there won't be room for anything else." She was trying to talk him out of it, but somehow she had a feeling he wouldn't take no for an answer.

"I realize I'd be asking the crew to make a sacrifice on my behalf, but they can wait another month, Dr Zimmerman might not have that time." He was pleading with her, he truly thought that he could save him.

She walked past him, "I'm sorry he's not doing well. Unusual man, I met him once at a conference. Managed to offend just about everyone there but he was certainly brilliant." She stopped almost directly below the Doctor. She turned back around to look him in the face. "I'm sure Starfleet is consulting their best physicians, Doctor."

"They are, but no one's been able to develop a cure. I have." He walked back down to the lower level and once again stood directly in front of her, "But I can't treat a patient who's 30,000 light years away."

She looked down "I'm sorry."

"Captain" he interrupted her.  
>She looked up and squared her shoulders, her voice was far sterner then it had been. "This is the first time we're attempting to send a response. We don't know if it'll even get through."<p>

"I'm willing to take that risk."

"I'm not." She snapped back.

"He programmed me, every algorithm; every subroutine." The Doctor paused for a moment. "If it weren't for his years of work I wouldn't be standing here. I owe him something and frankly so does this crew. In a way he's responsible for every life I've saved."

"Lewis Zimmerman designed the template for Starfleet's EMH. You're one of thousands based on that technology. It's not as though he's your father."

"From your perspective, from mine, he's the closest thing I've got. If I don't try to help him now, I may never get the chance." He was playing the pity role now, hoping that he'd be able to break her down.

She couldn't' take it anymore; he drove in a really good point. She looked away from him exasperated. "We'll have to find a way to convince Tom to take those duty shifts."

"He's already agreed." She looked back up at him once he'd said that.

Her face was somewhat annoyed as she spoke. "Tell him Captain Jane said hello. That's what he kept calling me at the conference. I think he did it just to get on my nerves."

"I've heard he can be difficult." He smiled.

"I certainly hope you get a chance to find out." She stated letting him know that even though she agreed that she wasn't happy.

"Thank you, Captain." She nodded and just as he was about to leave she said one more thing.

"Oh and Doctor, I most certainly hope you're back before she decides to get here." As much as she liked Tom and knew that he was a competent medic she much rather preferred to have the Doctor deliver her child.

"I'm sure I will be." With that he was gone.

-=/\=-

She leaned back in her desk; they'd just sent the Doctor to the alpha quadrant. It was risky but he'd insisted that he go. He wanted to save his father so to speak, and she just couldn't tell him no. She was busy poring over some of the data that Star Fleet had sent them. There was a lot of information, and though it was nice to get a chance to hear from the people back on Earth, she only wished that she would get a chance to talk to them in person. Though at the moment the information she'd found didn't make her too happy.

Her chime rang and she looked up, the evidence that she didn't like what she was seeing playing on her face. "Come in."

"Good morning." Chakotay smiled as he made his way into the room.

"em hum" she says in a very unhappy tone, acknowledging his statement.

"Problem?" he questioned, placing his hands on the edge of her desk.

She looked up at him with her right hand on the side of her cheek. "I haven't decided." He moved her hand down to rest on her desk, and as she spoke her body moved from side to side slightly, she was obviously somewhat annoyed by something, "I just listened to a communiqué from Admiral Hayes."

"Nice to have friends in high places," He joked, but found out quickly she wasn't in the mood for it. He watched as she turned her computer screen around so that he could watch the transmission as well.

She pressed several buttons and the message started to play. _"Hello, Captain. I hope this message finds you well, from what I understand it has not been easy but I want you to know that a lot of people are very proud of what you've accomplished." _Chakotay looked up to her a bit confused that she was upset by the message. She took a sip from her cup as the message continued to play. _"I also want to assure you that we have not given up finding a way to get you home. We've redirected two deep space vessels toward your position." _She made eye contact with Chakotay then looked back at the screen._ "If all goes well, they could rendezvous with you in the next five to six years." _She pressed a button to stop the transmission.

Setting her coffee cup down rather harshly she stood and made her way to the front of her desk, "Computer, advance to time index one twenty one point four." She turned the monitor towards the two of them, and pressed several more buttons and as the message started to play again she took a seat. Chakotay followed suite and took one next to her. _"As we get closer our conversations become more frequent. When responding to this message, please let us know of any casualties. I'm sure you've had more than your share." _She sent a sidelong glance towards him as they continued to watch the message._ "I'm anxious to know the status of your crew" Hayes paused for a moment, "the Maquis," _His eyes moved from the screen to her for a moment; she just continued to look at him as the message continued._ "first contacts that you've made interactions with the Borg. But there'll be time for everything. Our thoughts are with you. Talk to you soon." _The transmission ended and she pressed a button to close it.

She looked back at him clearly annoyed, Chakotay wanted to know her thoughts so he simply said, "What?"

"Status of the Maquis." She stated agitated.

Her response surprised him some, "Do you find that surprising?"

She shifted in her chair to lean closer to him, "I don't think of you, or B'Elanna or the others as Maquis. I think of you as part of my crew."

"You may have forgotten but we haven't." He knew that this would eventually come up, and as much as she wanted to think that it didn't matter it did. But, for her sake he continued. "You heard the Admiral: it'll be years before we have to deal with those issues. Let's worry about it then."

She looked away for a second then back to him, her expression changed only slightly, "Do you have lunch plans?"

"Is that an invitation?" He smiled to her.

She wanted to let him know that this was a business lunch, not a romantic one. "I was hoping you'd help me compose a response."

He grinned from ear to ear, "You're on." She blinked slightly and pushed herself out of her chair, he followed her.

-=/\=-

The Doctor had been gone for about two weeks now, and life on Voyager certainly was different without him. Most of the crew found that they missed him, despite his annoying antics. They were holding their position close to where the last transmission had come, not wanting to risk not being able to retrieve him when he did return.

B'Elanna had asked if she could take the time to make a few changes to the communications array and to the warp core. Her ideas were sound and since Voyager really wasn't doing much at the moment, why not try to improve their abilities.

"Captain!" The half Klingon engineer stated as she poked her head out from under the warp core.

"Hello, Lt. I just wanted to come by and see how things were going." She smiled as the woman pulled herself out from under the ships engine.

"Things are going fine, just about have the warp core ready, and Seven has finished with the communications array." She stood up and dusted off her uniform. She attempted to fix her hair but it did little good.

"That's good news. I was wondering if you'd like to have lunch with me in my quarters today." She smiled.

"Of course, I'd love to." She stated a bit surprised by the invitation. She wasn't going to say no, you never say no to an invite to the Captain's quarters.

"Good, I'll see you in about an hour?" she stated as she turned to leave.

B'Elanna nodded, "I'll be there." She watched Kathryn stroll out of engineering with a bit of a waddle.

-=/\=-

Lunch was delicious, thankfully Kathryn's replicator hadn't decided to liquefy or incinerate their meal. B'Elanna had been presently surprised that all Kathryn wanted to do was to hang out and chat. She voiced some of her concerns about the impending birth. Of course B'Elanna hadn't had a child, but she was still another woman.

She assured her that she would do fine, and that everyone was so excited to be welcoming the second baby born on voyager, even though its origins were less than usual. They were sitting on Kathryn's couch talking. She noticed her wince some. B'Elanna's hand came out to rest on Kathryn's arm, "are you alright?" she asked a tad bit concerned.

Kathryn smiled at her as she looked up, "Yeah, it's nothing."

She looked her over not sure if she believed her or not. When she winced again and shifted position she prompted again, "are you sure you alright?"

"It's just a cramp, right here." She stated as she pressed on the right side of her lower back. When she pressed she found the area to be rather ridged and the pain increased. Her face scrunched up.

"Maybe we should go to sickbay just to be sure." She'd already stood up and was reaching her hand out for her to take. Kathryn deciding that she probably wasn't going to take no for an answer nodded and reached her hand out. B'Elanna helped to lift her to her feet and they both headed down to sickbay.

-=/\=-

"Can you stop it, it's too early." Kathryn said with alarm in her voice. The cramping that she was feeling was the beginnings of labor.

"I believe I can, please try and relax." Tom stated he quickly moved to grab a hypo-spray. He pressed several buttons on the back of it and then pushed it against her neck. He took some more scans of her. He let out the breath he'd been holding. "Alright it looks like its working." He looked at her, "apparently she can be just as impatient as her mother." He joked.

Of course this only earned him a glare. "Why did I start to go into labor already?" she asked only giving him the glare at his comment.

"I'm not sure." Tom stated, "I'd like to take some more detailed scans."

She nodded and reached out to take B'Elanna's hand. The younger woman was astonished at the sudden need for reassurances. She'd always seen Kathryn as unafraid of just about everything. She just gently held onto her hand and watched as Tom worked.

"Hum," he stated, then looked at her, "it looks like the amniotic fluid is low, and you're blood pressure is a bit higher then I'd like." He sighed, "I'm afraid that in order to keep her in there for the length of time she's going to need to be, I'm going to have to restrict your duties."

Her mouth twitched some in annoyance, she didn't like it when the Doctor pulled rank, and at the moment Tom was the acting chief medical officer, which meant she could do the same thing. "How restricted?" she asked, hoping that it wasn't too bad.

"Well, I would like you to spend as much time sitting down or lying down as possible. I'd say as long as you are sitting on the bridge or in your ready room you should be fine. I don't want to relive you of duty completely, but as acting chief medical officer it is my duty to make sure that you and the baby are healthy and safe." He touched her belly only briefly to accent his point. He then took another deep breath. "I'll try to see if I can bring the fluid levels up, and we'll try to bring your blood pressure down. I would like to try to keep her in there at least until the Doctor gets back."

She nodded, she was now really concerned. "Thank you Tom." She didn't want to deliver this baby four to six weeks early without the Doctor being there. She would at this point in time do anything that Tom asked. In fact she'd even thought briefly that if he had relieved her from duty she probably wouldn't have been that upset.

He nodded and pressed another hypo-spray into her neck, "There that should possibly help the fluid levels, if you wouldn't mind coming back in about three hours. I would like to check and see your progress."

She nodded and pushed herself up off the biobed. She'd long ago released B'Elanna's hand. At the moment she felt like crying, but she knew that would do no good, so instead she decided to go and find Chakotay.

-=/\=-

She now sat looking out the viewport from the rocking chair. Her blood pressure was still high, and the fluid levels had only increased a small about. Tom was very worried that they baby might come early. She herself had decided that maybe she would take it easy; the last thing she wanted was to put Tom into the position of having to deliver a premature infant without the help of the Doctor. Though, it wasn't like Tom wasn't capable of doing it, but if something were to go wrong she'd much rather have him there.

She looked up when she heard someone walk into the room with her. "Hey, how are you feeling?" he asked. He knelt down next to the chair and placed his hand on the baby.

"I don't know, I knew it was a bad idea to let the Doctor go." She looked over her shoulder, "what if he doesn't make it back?"

He was rubbing her belly some, "Don't think like that, he'll make it back, and Tom will make sure she doesn't get here before he does." He took his other hand and placed it on the other side of her head stroking her hair some.

She was holding the Flotter doll, "I hope your right, if something happened. I don't know what I'd do."

"Come on, let's go to bed, I can bring the reports here tomorrow if you want to read them and stay down." He offered his hand and she took it. She placed Flotter into the corner of the crib and followed him into their sleeping area.

Even though she was completely worn out, she couldn't sleep. She was worried about everything, what if someone decided they were going to attack, what if the Doctor didn't make it back to the ship, what if the baby came to early and didn't make it. She looked over her shoulder, he was sound asleep. She turned back around lying on her left side; she knew that it would help to keep her blood pressure down. Tears silently fell from her cheeks, until she finally managed to drift to sleep.

-=/\=-

Thankfully Tom had managed to keep the baby from coming. Kathryn now lay on a bio-bed while the Doctor examined her. "So Doctor, are we going to be able to keep her in there as long as she supposed to?"

His brow was furrowed. "Tom did a wonderful job, but I don't think you're going to be able to keep her the full thirty eight weeks, however her lungs and heart appear to be healthy, I believe that under the circumstances the sooner we deliver her the better." he didn't like where any of the numbers were.

"So what does that mean Doctor?" she asked sitting up.

"That means by the end of the day today, you're going to be a mommy." He grinned broadly.

Her eyes were very wide and her mouth fell open. "Are you sure it's not too soon?"

"Yes, you are thirty six weeks, it used to be known as magic number, and her lugs and heart are developed enough, she'll be just fine." He placed his arm on her shoulder. "We can induce as soon as your ready." He smiled.

She nodded in disbelief. It was finally real; she was going to have a baby. Once the initial shock passed she looked up at him, "well I guess there's no since of putting it off,"

He nodded, and lifted up a hypo spray he injected it into her neck. "I prefer to allow you to have a natural a labor as possible, I will monitor you and the baby if things seem to be turning towards the worse I will speed up the process, other than that we'll now let nature take its course. Since this is your first pregnancy it may be a while. I suggest that you get some rest.

She nodded; she had yet to a contraction. She looked up and he noted what she was going to ask before she did. "I just simply provided you with the same level of hormones your body would have produces to signal that it was time, it may take a little bit before the effects start. If you want, you can go back to your quarters, or to your ready room to wait, I'll keep an eye on the two of you from here."

She smiled and nodded, "Thank you Doctor." She decided that was the most tempting offer she'd had. Since she didn't have to be in sickbay the entire time, she wasn't planning on being in sickbay.

-=/\=-

"Are you sure you're allowed to be up here?" he took her hands into his and looked into her eyes.

She laughed, "Yes," she paused for a moment as her first contraction started, it wasn't too painful. He looked worried and she laughed as it passed. "You don't have to worry about it, the Doctor said that it could take a while. So he didn't want mot force me to sit in sickbay and wait it out."

He smiled broadly, this was it; she was really going to be having a baby. "I'm sure the rest of the crew would like to know, perhaps we should make the announcement." She nodded and allowed him to do the honors. She wasn't sure how long things were going to take.

-=/\=-

It was after the alpha shift and the entire senior staff was in the mess hall. No one wanted to be in their quarters. Kathryn had gone back to sickbay about half way through the shift and had been there now for five hours. "And I thought waiting for Naomi to be born was tough."

"I know Tom; I think we're all more nervous about this baby then her." B'Elanna was leaning back holding a coffee cup.

Seven who had not been there for the long labor of Sam walked up to them. "I thought the Doctor induced her, why hasn't she had the child yet?"

Neelix clapped her on the shoulder much to her annoyance. "The Doctor didn't want to rush the process; if they are both able to handle the natural course of labor it's better than using medication."

"That seems like an inefficient use of time when you could simply transport the infant out of the womb." She just wasn't getting it.

Sam who'd made her way down to the mess hall decided to speak up. "I know that it may seem that way, but for a mother to go through labor is a wonderful thing. Sure it's painful and the process can take a very long time, but it's the way we were designed to bring our children into the world. If we were men tot simply transport the baby out, then we would have been born with transporters. There are also complications that can arise from transporting the baby." She was all too familiar with the fact that there was a real possibility of the baby dying. Naomi had died initially and if it hadn't been for the fact that Voyager had been duplicated she wouldn't have had her daughter at all.

She raised her eyebrow at this new found information and remained quiet with her arms behind her back thinking upon her words. The rest of the people were either sitting down or pacing back and forth. After what seemed like hours Tom's badge chirped. "Mr. Paris, I could use your assistance. It's time." The Doctor's voice rang though the mess hall.

Tom was up and out of his chair followed by the entire senior staff that wasn't already in sickbay. The corridors were nearly full as Tom pushed his way into sickbay. It seemed that everyone wanted to be there for the birth of the baby. Of course for the safety and privacy of the Captain they were not allowed into sickbay for the birth.

-=/\=-

"Come on push Captain, push." The Doctor called out from his position below her body.

"I am pushing." She called back. She'd refused any pain medication, she was a strong believer in as natural a birth as possible.

Chakotay was wishing at the moment that he'd been given some pain medication. He was pretty sure the Doctor would have to revive his had once the baby was there. "You're doing really well Love" he said while taking the hand that wasn't in the process of being broken to wipe her brow as she relaxed back on the bed.

It seemed like she'd been pushing for ten hours when in reality she'd only been pushing for about five minutes. She had only a few moments before another contraction hit her. She squeezed his hand as she brought herself up to push again, the urge nearly overpowering. She held her breath as she bore down as hard as she could manage.

"Doctor, her blood pressure is spiking, and the baby's heart rate is dropping." Tom stated worriedly from where he was monitoring their progress.

Kathryn relaxed back on the bed; she was feeling dizzy and gasped for air. The Doctor had a tough call to make; he scanned to see the location of the baby. He looked up at her, "Captain, if we don't get her out with the next contraction I'm going to need to transporter her." He stated, he'd give her only one more chance, but anything beyond that put both of them at great risk.

She nodded as she gasped for air. Chakotay bent down next to her ear, "You can do it Kathryn."

The next contraction was by far the strongest she'd had. She bore down and cried out as the pain rushed through her. "Keep pressure Captain, you can do it, she's almost here." The Doctor called out, Tom was looking at the readings and was very worried that there was about to be a problem, but, thankfully with one loud primal cry the Doctor announced, "I've got her!"

Kathryn fell back onto the bed exhausted. Tears were in her eyes, she waited for what seemed like hours, and then finally the sound she needed to hear. A shrill cat like cry pierced though the room. The doctor brought the baby up to her chest. She looked down at the red baby. "Oh my goodness, you're so precious." She laughed through the tears. She couldn't believe this child she'd never imagined having, was now lying on her breast.

The Doctor was beaming as he handed Chakotay the laser scalped. "Would you like to do the honors?"

He nodded and took the device from the Holographic man; he then carefully severed the link between Kathryn's body and the baby's. Once the baby was officially born he went back up to Kathryn. Tears were flowing down her face uncontrollably. He placed a kiss on her very sweaty forehead. "She's perfect just like you." He too was trying not to cry.

-=/\=-

B'Elanna ran up to Tom when he excited sickbay, "So?" she asked with all the excitement of a little kid.

"We have a new crewmember, a healthy baby girl; mother and baby are doing just fine. I believe the winner of the baby pool is Tuvok, at three pounds nine ounces and measuring just eighteen and a half inches long. Congratulations." He couldn't help but smile. While everyone was waiting for the baby to be born everyone took bets as to how much she'd weigh and how long she'd be. Tuvok had hit it dead on. And, he would be the recipient of some holodeck time. After Tom's announcement a loud cheer that rang through the entire corridor, everyone overjoyed that everyone was in good shape.

-=/\=-

In sickbay Kathryn was unaware of anyone outside, she lay resting with a pillow behind her back her daughter nursing from her breast. Chakotay just sat next to her holding on to her other hand. She was lost in the beauty of everything. Even though the baby held almost all her genes exactly there were some very noticeable differences. For one her hair was very curly, and though it was to early to tell her eyes looked as if they were going to be a different color as well. She took a deep breath and turned her head to Chakotay, He was just watching her with amazement.

In some ways he wished the child was actually his, but he'd take a little replica of Kathryn any day. He placed his hand on the back of the baby. He kept quiet not wanting to spoil the moment for her. She sighed in contentment as she leaned her head back against the pillow and closed her eyes. She knew that from that moment on nothing in her life was going to ever be the same.


End file.
